The Commission des Opérations de Bourse (COB), the French securities regulator, has launched an investigation into the accounts and financial information at Vivendi Universal, the struggling waste to internet company.

The inquiry by the COB will add to the pressure on the company's new management, which is struggling to solve Vivendi's short-term liquidity crisis and is facing a potential firesale of assets after the failure of the six year tenure of Jean-Marie Messier. Messier resigned last week after shares in the company had halved in a little more than a fortnight.