MUMBAI: French media and telecom major Vivendi Universal has reported much lower Q4 sales of 7.215 billion euros. Vivendi attributes the drop to the sale of certain businesses and the failure of the telecom sector to grow and and offset weakness at other divisions.

Vivendi, whose activities include the world's largest music company, France's number two cell phone company and the country's leading pay-TV firm, reported year-ago fourth-quarter sales of 15.969 billion euros including units like Veolia Environment, since sold off.

Analysts had expected Vivendi to post fourth-quarter sales of 7.169 billion euros, say reports.