Franco-Israeli cable magnate Patrick Drahi made a surprise move into the art world by snapping up Sotheby's in a deal worth $3.7 billion, marking the art auction house's return to private ownership after 31 years.
Sotheby's, founded in London in 1744, is the oldest company traded on the New York Stock Exchange. If the deal is approved by shareholders and regulators, Sotheby's would become a privately held company for the first time in more than three decades.
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The New York company, which started in London, holds auctions in 10 salesrooms worldwide with annual sales turnover exceeding $4 billion.
It reported an adjusted profit last year of close to $130 million and revenue of more than $1 billion.
"Sotheby's is one of the most elegant and aspirational brands in the world, Drahi said. "As a longtime client and lifetime admirer of the company, I am acquiring Sotheby's together with my family."
Drahi, 54, is the founder and controlling shareholder of Altice, which provides telecommunications services in France and elsewhere. The French billionaire has expanded his telecom and media operations internationally, with businesses in Portugal, Israel, the US and the Dominican Republic. Altice bought the New York-area Cablevision cable company in 2015.
Drahi, through his BidFair USA company, will pay $57 per share, a 61% premium to the Sotheby's closing stock price Friday.
"This acquisition will provide Sotheby's with the opportunity to accelerate the successful program of growth initiatives of the past several years in a more flexible private environment," Sotheby's CEO Tad Smith said in a prepared statement.
"Now the company can become more flexible and nimble as a privately-held enterprise and it will be interesting to see the changes that will be made," said Abigail Asher, a partner at international art consultants Guggenheim, Asher.
Sotheby's counterpart in London, Christie's, founded by James Christie in 1766, was sold to another French businessman, François Pinault, in the late 1980s. It was also taken private.
