True ‘art’ of the deal at Sotheby’s

The 275-year-old auctionhouse Sotheby’s is being sold to a French-Israeli businessman for about $3.7 billion.

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.

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, said the buyer, Patrick Drahi. “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 billionaire has expanded his telecom and media operations internationally, with businesses in Portugal, Israel, the U.S. and the Dominican Republic. Altice bought New York-area Cablevision in 2015.

Through his BidFair USA company, Drahi will pay $57 a 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 statement.

Sotheby’s counterpart in London, Christie’s, founded by James Christie in 1766, was sold to French businessman Francois Pinault in the late 1980s. It, too, was taken private.

The first reported sale by Sotheby’s, for “several Hundred scarce and valuable Books in all branches of Polite Literature,” was made March 11, 1744.

Shares of Sotheby’s finished the day up 58.6% in New York Stock Exchange trading.