vivendi-logo-1The price tag is said to be $5.8 billion. This, even after GE chairman Jeff Immelt last week went to Paris to beg the one-time French water company to come to reasonable terms. Then again, the French love money even more than screwing their partners, and Vivendi knew it had GE by the balls. What I can't understand is why GE ever put itself in such a vulnerable position in the first place by placing Vivendi in the catbird seat during this Comcast-GE negotiation for NBC Universal. Now the deal for Comcast to takeover 51% of NBCU can go forward. And Vivendi can become more of a telco company. But GE shareholders got screwed. And Immelt is no Jack Welch.