Patrick Drahi, the owner of the telecom group Altice, is on track to purchase Sotheby's, the high-profile auction house, for $3.7 billion.The acquisition would turn Sotheby's into a privately owned concern after 31 years as a publicly listed company on the New York Stock Exchange. Drahi said the acquisition had "no capital link with Altice Europe or Altice USA" and would be funded through the bank BNP Paribas, as well as by equity provided from his personal holdings."For my entire life,...
Altice
Patrick
Drahi
Chairman
Working for John Malone’s Liberty Global unit before founding Alitce in 2001, French-Israeli billionaire Drahi is known for aggressively cutting costs at his companies and for proving himself a savvy operator, slowly but surely raising his profile in the global media marketplace through his cable and telecom acquisitions in the U.S., Europe and Israel under the Altice banner. More recently, he expanded into international TV news through both Charter Communications and the Tel Aviv-based i24 News channel, which has gained carriage in the States through Altice USA, the fourth-largest cable system. He bankrolled the i24 News operation and succeeded in increasing Israel’s voice in covering world events. In June, Drahi entered into a $3.7 billion transaction to take auction house Sotheby’s private.