I'm not quite sure why, but I seem to have a thing for big, and sometimes dysfunctional, conglomerates. Take the case of French media and communications company Vivendi (NYSE:V) -- with all the whining about how it should break itself up, you might forget that the stock is up by a mid-teens percentage for the past year and well off the lows of mid-2002, when the viability of the company was in question.

For at least one more quarter, the results here look all right. Overall revenue was up more than 6% on a comparable basis and up almost 5% on a comparable constant-currency basis. Operating earnings rose about 11%, and though free cash flow was down, EBITDA was up 5% from the prior year.

Actually, apart from costs incurred in the Canal+ business for soccer broadcasts, the underlying growth here was pretty good. The music business saw solid growth in operating earnings and seems to have a healthy lead on EMI and Warner Music (NYSE:WMG) in terms of the percentage of its revenue from digital music. And though growth in the mobile phone business is a little more moderate (revenue up about 3%, earnings up about 11%), this is still a solid cash flow opportunity for the company.

There is one major item, though, that American investors need to keep in mind. Vivendi is canceling its ADR program and will be delisting from the New York Stock Exchange. Owners of the shares will have the option to either sell them or exchange them for the underlying European shares. Though I would imagine there would still be a Pink Sheets-traded ADR for Vivendi shares, I honestly don't know how that whole process will work out.

With that in mind, there are plenty of alternatives investors can explore. If you want exposure to European telecom, you can look at France Telecom (NYSE:FTE), Deutsche Telekom (NYSE:DT), or Vivendi's partner Vodafone (NYSE:VOD). If you want European pay TV, how about Liberty Global (NASDAQ:LBTYA)?

Considering that these shares have a lit fuse attached, I can't say I'm that interested right now. Once the dust clears on the delisting, though, this company and its equities (wherever and however they're listed) might be worth a further look.

For more Foolishness with a euro bent:

Fool contributor Stephen Simpson has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares).