French Billionaire Is Too Much of a Mystery Man

Two months to the day since Elliott Management Corp. declared a stake in Telecom Italia SpA, the bitter standoff with the operator’s biggest shareholder Vivendi SA reaches a head at a shareholder meeting on Friday. Investors are voting on whether to elect a board of directors primarily made up of Elliott or Vivendi nominees. Elliott – The hedge fund activist wants to divest network infrastructure business Sparkle, sell a minority stake in the national Italian network known as NetCo, and convert shares with added voting rights – largely controlled by Vivendi – into ordinary shares.