Quotes of the Day

Even Jean-René Fourtou, Vivendi's new CEO, seems puzzled. "We can continue to build an international media and communications company," he wrote to investors last week, but "with what strategy?" There may be order behind his confusion — Vivendi's last CEO, Jean-Marie Messier, was criticized for depressing the price of assets he planned to sell by broadcasting his intentions. As Fourtou sells j10 billion in assets to service Vivendi's debt, that's not a mistake he can repeat. Yet he must also be genuinely perplexed by his options. "My sense is that they would like to push forward with a European strategy, significantly reducing U.S. assets," says J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Harrington. It looks probable: Vivendi marked Houghton Mifflin publishers and the international arm of Canal Plus for disposal, while mulling the sale of Universal Entertainment. This would change Vivendi from an international power to a mid-sized European firm with more than half its revenues coming solely from France. But there are obstacles. Potential buyers like AOL Time Warner have their own money problems. And selling U.S. assets acquired through mergers would trigger massive taxes. The only certainty is that Vivendi is heading for a fire sale, and it won't emerge from the ashes the same.

COSMETICS
Perfumers Smell A Rat
France's perfume makers have their noses bent out of shape over new European Union rules that would force them to label their products with all the ingredients, and especially any potential allergens, that make them the world's most famous fragrances. Han-Paul Bodifee, president of the National Union of Perfume Makers, denounces the rules as "unrealistic," noting that more than 100 ingredients can be used to create a fragrance. And in an industry where the beauty of a flask can be almost as important as its contents, the idea of swamping packaging with ugly words like ethyl linalool and geraniol is heresy. Even worse, Bodifee argues, the labels would be a free recipe that "favors counterfeiters." That could be devastating to areas of France like Grasse, a flower-growing town that brings in j600 million a year producing about half of French perfumes' raw materials and 8% of the world's. But the stink the industry has been raising may pay off. Negotiations with the E.U. will take place in October, and perfumers already think they smell victory.

THE BOURSE
Fast And Furious
Many European companies were irked by new rules requiring ceos of U.S.-listed firms to swear by their financial reports. But Germany's Porsche protested loudest, shelving plans for a New York Stock Exchange listing.

South Of The Border
HSBC, the world's second-largest bank (after Citigroup), continued its U.S. expansion, buying Mexico's Grupo Financiero Bital for $1.14 billion.

Generation Gap
The Netherlands' KPN took a ?9 billion write-down on its third-generation mobile phone service. Investors cheered. Will the likes of Deutsche Telekom be next?

Enough To Make You Sick
AstraZeneca's drug pipeline is looking dry. First its cholesterol drug failed clinical tests, then last week the lung-cancer drug Iressa, with forecast annual sales of $2 billion, followed suit.

INDICATORS
A Touch Of Class
Two-thirds of Britons say they are proud to identify themselves as working class, though only 49% have traditional working-class occupations. What has changed since 1999, when 52% described themselves as working class? Well, anything is better than having people think you're a CEO.

Oil Gets High On Strife
There is still one market George W. Bush can boost by making a speech: commodities. Hawkish talk about war with Iraq pushed oil through the $30 mark last week, its highest level in 15 months. Prices eased slightly as OPEC indicated it would fill shortfalls caused by war.

Taxing Times In Germany
Just one month before the German election, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder said he would drop January's personal tax cuts, and perhaps raise corporate taxes from 25% to 26.5% to pay for flood relief. But there is good news: the cleanup should boost Germany's troubled construction industry.

Mind The Gap
The relatively anemic dollar hasn't cut the U.S. trade gap or blunted America's taste for imports, at least not yet. Imports of consumer goods hit a record high of $26.2 billion in June, while the trade deficit reached $37.2 billion.

BOTTOM LINES
"Watching Italian football now is like following the stock market. It is a power game between a lot of big companies."
SALVATORE CAMPUS, fan of Turin's Juventus, on the dispute delaying Italy's football season

"Although amorality renders financial markets efficient, it also renders them inhuman. Some sense of humanity must be introduced."
GEORGE SOROS, investor, arguing for a fundamental shift away from laissez-faire thinking

"God forbid it will happen to us: things are quite expensive enough already in Britain."
JOAN COLLINS, actress, complaining about the euro after noticing price increases in France

• The vivisection of Vivendi has begun.