Right about now, the behind-the-scenes moneyman orchestrating Marvin Davis' audacious $13-billion bid to control Vivendi Universal's entertainment assets is somewhere on the Atlantic Ocean, hopefully closer to South America than to Africa.
Will Mesdag is pausing from the biggest takeover proposal in the media industry this year to pilot his 60-foot yacht, the Constanter, toward St. Lucia from the Canary Islands in the annual Atlantic Rally for Cruisers race. "There's nothing better," said Mesdag, "than 'driving,' especially downwind."
That's what deal makers also like to see in a good investment. But a cool reception by Vivendi Universal and Wall Street skepticism are making for strong headwinds.
As the man who drives Davis' financial empire, Mesdag's mission includes addressing straight on whether Davis' latest bid is anything more than another example of "kicking the tires." A slew of Davis near-misses -- which includes four airlines, CBS and the Dallas Cowboys football team -- continues to plague the billionaire, spawning a reputation in certain quarters for looking deals over but passing on them when they get too expensive.
It's a reputation Mesdag believes is unfair.
"I'm not inclined to waste my time," Mesdag said. "If Marvin wasn't serious, I wouldn't be involved with Marvin. I have any number of things I could be doing."
Nonetheless, many on Wall Street believe debt-laden Vivendi Universal -- whose portfolio of Universal Pictures, Universal Studios theme parks and Universal Music entices Davis -- soon will join that list of could-have-beens.
When word of Davis' bid first surfaced 10 days ago, "we didn't take it very seriously," said Michael Nathanson, a Sanford C. Bernstein analyst.
Davis and his camp point to a list of consummated deals that includes 20th Century Fox and the Pebble Beach golf resort (both since sold); numerous oil and gas ventures; and development of major real estate projects from Denver to Chicago to the Water Garden in Santa Monica.
Mesdag also notes that anyone with the kind of dollars Davis has (4.6 billion of them, Forbes estimates) gets pitched more deals than he can handle.
"A lot of people would like to have Marvin as an investor," Mesdag said. "We try to do justice to all of the proposals that come in, without rejecting any of them outright."
Missing Pieces
