CSFB's decision last month to drop a client in favour of NBC in the long-running $14bn (€12.9bn) auction of Vivendi Universal Entertainment appears to have paid off.

Jean-René Fourtou, the chief executive officer of Vivendi, has chosen NBC - owned by General Electric - and an investment group led by Edgar Bronfman, the vice chairman of Vivendi, to compete in the final round of bidding. Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns' French M&A team are advising Bronfman's consortium