Vivendi cleared for hacker inquiry

A Paris court has agreed to give media conglomerate Vivendi the opportunity to independently examine the wireless voting system which it claims was hacked following the vote results of a recent shareholder meeting.

Vivendi and two of the company's largest shareholders, Compagnie de Saint-Gobain SA and Societe Generale, jointly filed the petition with the Paris Commercial Court. The court hearing was held on Thursday (yesterday).

Independent investigators will examine a number of voting terminals, the transmitter which communicated with the terminals and the system's hard disk drive.

The equipment had been put under seal following a meeting of bailiffs who were responsible for making sure the shareholder vote was conducted fairly.

Vivendi's board are set to hold a second shareholder meeting to repeat the votes.

The court also ruled that the first meeting's resolutions will be maintained, allowing Vivendi to distribute its dividend on 13 May, as it had planned.