A Alfred Taubman plans to sell his majority stake in auction house Sotheby's. Taubman filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to make public his intention to work in cooperation with Sotheby's to explore a possible sale or merger or to sell his stake in the company.
A Alfred Taubman headed Sotheby's from 1993 to 2000. In April, Taubman was sentenced to one year in prison and fined $7.5 million after he was found guilty of participating in a price-fixing scheme with rival auction house Christie's.
Mr. Taubman owns approximately 13.2 million shares of Class B Common Stock of Sotheby's Holdings, which represents a voting majority of approximately 62.9%. Mr. Taubman agreed not to enter into an agreement to sell his shares for a period of 90 days, beginning yesterday, without the consent of Sotheby's. Over the next several weeks, Goldman Sachs, which represents Mr. Taubman, and Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan which represent Sotheby's, will contact qualified parties who may have an interest in Sotheby's.
In February, Sotheby's entered into a strategic online alliance with eBay that will ultimately eliminate auctions on Sothebys.com and move its online auction business to a new site to be built and hosted by eBay.
In 1999, eBay purchased Sotheby's rival Butterfield & Butterfield. No word on whether eBay is interested in Sotheby's.
