Jean-Marie Messier, the non-egotistically challenged chief executive of Vivendi Universal, has been busy writing to newspapers that dared to publish articles questioning his majesty's inability to make a mistake.

At this month's results announcement, Messier announced a loss of €13.6bn - the largest ever in France - after an annoying accounting rule, which made him write down €15.7bn. In the same breath, he said that paying for overvalued acquisitions in over-valued Vivendi stock last year did not destroy shareholder value.