Success Quote by Jean-Marie Messier

Messier’s genius here is the velvet glove: a sentence that pretends to be exploratory while quietly laying down terms. “For this to make sense” sounds like pragmatic adult supervision, but it also narrows the room. He isn’t asking whether a deal should happen; he’s defining the only conditions under which it’s allowed to happen - conditions set by “us.” The quick invocation of “a fair financial deal” frames any pushback as unreasonable, because who argues against fairness? It’s classic corporate rhetoric: a moral word used to pre-justify hard bargaining.

Then comes the seduction: “a true partnership in content.” Partnership is the warmest word in the M&A dictionary. It signals collaboration, shared vision, even mutual respect - while staying conveniently vague about control, rights, and revenue splits. “In content” is doing a lot of work, too. Content is both product and cultural capital; claiming partnership there is a bid to be close to the creative engine without admitting the power dynamics that usually govern it.

The final line supplies the strategic tell: “interactive services are a key field for us.” This places the remark in the late-1990s/early-2000s convergence moment, when media conglomerates were racing to bolt old entertainment onto new platforms. Messier, at Vivendi’s helm in that era, isn’t merely admiring interactivity; he’s telegraphing a pivot, using “especially interested” as a polite cover for urgency. Subtext: we need your digital future to justify our corporate present, and we’ll call it partnership while we price it like acquisition.