Big Law has leading advisory roles in the $2.7 billion purchase of Sotheby’s by French telecom titan and art collector Patrick Drahi’s BidFair USA.
Sullivan & Cromwell is representing the famed international auction house in the deal to go private after the past three decades as a publicly traded company.
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson is representing LionTree Advisors, which was the financial adviser to Sotheby’s in the transaction.
The Fried Frank team was led by M&A partner Warren S. de Wied.
BidFair USA, a wholly owned Drahi entity, received legal advice from Hughes Hubbard & Reed and Ropes & Gray International.
Partner Ken Lefkowitz led the 13-person Hughes Hubbard team, which also included partners Neil Oxford, Michael Traube, Robert Bell, Andrew Braiterman, Philip Giordano, Spencer Harrison, Shahzeb Lari, Alexandra Poe, Gary Simon, Shane Stroud, and Matthew Syrkin, and counsel Carol Remy.
The Ropes & Gray team was led by finance partner Michael Kazakevich and finance counsel Alexandru Mocanu, along with derivatives and commodities partner Anna Lawry and two associates, all based in London.
Sullivan & Cromwell did not respond to request for the names of its lawyers.
Drahi is the president of Altice Eu9ope NV, a publicly traded telecommunications company with some 30 million customers. He is a major art collector.
To contact the reporter responsible for this story: Elizabeth Olson at egolson1@gmail.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Rebekah Mintzer at rmintzer@bloomberglaw.com
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