Vivendi Universal, the troubled Franco-American media giant, has voted through a €10bn ($9.8bn) asset disposal programme and hopes to complete half of these disposals within the next nine months.

Houghton Mifflin, the educational publisher Vivendi bought for €2.4bn last year, will be the first on the list of disposals promised by Jean René Fourtou, who replaced Jean-Marie Messier as chairman and chief executive officer of Vivendi Universal last month. Fourtou has pledged to slash the group's €19bn debt pile, and sell as much as €10bn worth of assets within two years.