Book review: “The Man Who Tried to Buy the World”

Not new (it’s from 2003) and written by two journalists (Martine Orange at Le Monde and Jo Johnson at the Financial Times), The Man Who Tried to Buy the World traces the gripping story of flamboyant French empire builder Jean-Marie Messier at Vivendi Universal until it was forced to resign in July 2002 after the company posted a non-cash loss of €13.6 b…