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The Old Guard's Revenge
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Had French business titan Jean-Marie Messier been a footballer, he might not be suffering disgrace and joblessness today. Last month, after France's World Cup humiliation, President Jacques Chirac advised disgruntled fans against turning on their beloved Bleus warning "we mustn't burn today what we considered beautiful yesterday." Messier wasn't so lucky. Though once regarded as a national hero for turning a sleepy French water company into the world's second-largest media group, Vivendi Universal, Messier saw his corporate reign come to an ignoble end last week as the stock market and the French media, business and cultural élite and even...