French billionaire Drahi acquires Sotheby's in $3.7 bn deal: auction house

French telecoms and media mogul Patrick Drahi is acquiring Sotheby’s auction house, one of the world’s biggest art brokers, in a $3.7 billion deal, the British-founded company announced Monday. Drahi, the billionaire founder of the Altice empire which owns SFR telecoms company and several French media houses including BFM news channel and Liberation newspaper, is paying $57 per share to acquire Sotheby’s through his company BidFair USA, the art house said. His foray into the art market sees him follow in the footsteps of fellow French billionaire, Kering chairman Francois Pinault, who acquired a majority stake in Sotheby’s rival Christie’s in 1998. The deal returns British-founded Sotheby’s to private ownership after 31 years as a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange.