As Vivendi struggles to find a buyer for Universal Music Group and the Italian pay TV business Mediaset Premium in which it owns a sizable stake undergoes a dramatic transformation, the French mass media firm’s Canal+ unit is betting big with a $1.1 billion swoop for pay TV provider M7. Vivendi is at the precipice of an empire in the throngs of a bizarre series of events and the latest M&A activity is another which is easy to fault. The acquisition from private equity firm Astorg initially appears peculiar at a time when the decline of pay TV in Europe is more glaring than ever, but rivals must muscle up against Vodafone to survive in the increasingly cutthroat markets of…