Patrick Drahi

Patrick Drahi
Drahi in 2015
Patrick Drahi
Born	20 8, 1963
Birthplace	Casablanca, Morocco
Nationality	French, Israeli
Occupation	Businessman, investor
Title	Founder and Chairman of Altice
Known for	Founding Altice, acquisition of Sotheby's
Spouse(s)	Lina Nazirah Zenie
Children	4

Patrick Drahi (born 20 August 1963) is a French–Israeli billionaire businessman and investor whose career has been defined by ambitious, debt-fuelled acquisitions across the telecommunications and media industries. He is the founder and controlling shareholder of Altice, a multinational telecommunications group with operations across Europe and, until its separation, the United States. In 2019, Drahi acquired the storied international auction house Sotheby's, taking it private in a deal valued at $3.7 billion. Born in Casablanca, Morocco, and raised in France, Drahi built his fortune through a series of increasingly large cable and telecom acquisitions beginning in the 1990s, culminating in multibillion-dollar deals for SFR, Portugal Telecom, and Cablevision in the United States. A resident of Switzerland, Drahi has been the subject of intense scrutiny in recent years over the scale of Altice's debt burden and his aggressive financial restructuring tactics.

Early Life

Patrick Drahi was born on 20 August 1963 in Casablanca, Morocco, to a family of Sephardic Jewish heritage. His family subsequently relocated to France, where Drahi grew up and was educated. Drahi holds both French and Israeli citizenship.

Drahi's background as an outsider to the French business establishment has been a recurring theme in media coverage of his career. When he made his landmark bid for SFR in 2014, Reuters described him as an "outsider" who "defied the French establishment" to secure the deal, noting that he was relatively unknown among the country's corporate elite despite having spent years building cable businesses in France. A Portuguese publication profiling Drahi described him as a self-made figure who built his empire from modest beginnings in the cable television industry.

After establishing himself in the French cable industry during the 1990s, Drahi eventually settled in Switzerland, where he has resided for many years. His residence in the Geneva area later drew attention from Swiss tax authorities.

Career

Early Telecommunications Ventures

Drahi began his career in the French cable television industry in the early 1990s, at a time when the sector was fragmented and dominated by small local operators. He progressively acquired and consolidated cable networks, building the infrastructure that would eventually become the foundation of his telecommunications empire. Through a strategy of buying undervalued cable assets and leveraging debt to finance further acquisitions, Drahi developed a playbook that he would apply on an increasingly larger scale over the following decades.

By the 2000s, Drahi had established Altice as a holding company for his growing portfolio of cable and telecommunications assets. The company became the vehicle through which he would execute a series of transformative acquisitions across multiple countries, employing significant amounts of debt financing to fund each deal.

Acquisition of SFR

Drahi's profile rose dramatically in 2014 when Altice, through its subsidiary Numericable, entered the bidding war for SFR, France's second-largest mobile phone operator, which was being divested by Vivendi. The acquisition was contentious; Drahi was competing against Bouygues Telecom and faced skepticism from parts of the French business and political establishment, which viewed him as a leveraged buyout artist rather than a long-term operator.

Despite these headwinds, Vivendi agreed to sell SFR to Altice in a deal valued at approximately €23 billion ($23 billion). Bloomberg News reported the agreement in April 2014, noting it was one of the largest European telecommunications deals in years. The combination of Numericable and SFR created a major integrated telecommunications provider in France, offering cable television, broadband internet, and mobile telephony services. The deal cemented Drahi's position as one of the most consequential figures in European telecommunications.

A French media report from the period noted that Drahi, operating from his base in Switzerland, had managed to outmaneuver established French industrialists to secure what was considered one of the most prized telecom assets in Europe.

Expansion into the United States

Following his consolidation of European telecom assets, Drahi turned his attention to the United States market. In September 2015, Altice announced it would acquire Cablevision, the fifth-largest cable company in the United States, in a deal valued at $17.7 billion including debt. The acquisition gave Altice control of approximately 2.6 million cable subscribers in the New York metropolitan area, as well as News 12 Networks, a regional news operation, and Newsday, a major Long Island newspaper.

The Cablevision deal, combined with Altice's earlier acquisition of Suddenlink Communications, established the company — branded as Altice USA — as a significant player in the American cable market. The acquisition also brought Altice into the orbit of the Dolan family, Cablevision's longtime owners. Relations between the Dolans and Altice's management later soured, leading to litigation. In 2018, the Dolan family sued Altice USA over issues related to the News 12 operation.

Since 2018, the American arm of Drahi's telecommunications empire has operated independently as Altice USA, a publicly traded company, separate from the European operations.

Acquisition of Sotheby's

In June 2019, Drahi made a move outside the telecommunications sector when he announced an agreement to acquire Sotheby's, the international auction house founded in 1744, for $57 per share. The deal, which took Sotheby's private after 31 years as a publicly listed company, was valued at approximately $3.7 billion.

The acquisition surprised many observers in both the art world and the financial sector, as Drahi was not widely known as an art collector or patron. The New Yorker reported in 2025 that Drahi brought his debt-driven management methods to Sotheby's, leading to significant changes within the institution. The magazine's investigation described a period of "turmoil and trouble" at the auction house under Drahi's ownership, as the new owner applied cost-cutting measures and financial strategies drawn from his telecommunications experience to the very different world of fine art sales.

Taking Altice Europe Private

In January 2021, Drahi moved to take Altice Europe private, delisting the company from the Euronext Amsterdam exchange. The decision was approved at an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders. By taking the company private, Drahi gained greater control over the restructuring and strategic direction of the European arm of his empire, free from the quarterly earnings pressures and disclosure requirements associated with public markets.

The privatization came at a time when Altice's European operations were burdened by substantial debt accumulated through years of acquisition-driven expansion. The move was seen by some analysts as a way for Drahi to more aggressively restructure the company's operations and balance sheet.

Debt Crisis and Restructuring

By the mid-2020s, the scale of Altice's accumulated debt became the dominant narrative surrounding Drahi's business empire. After years of debt-fuelled expansion, the company faced an increasingly challenging financial environment as interest rates rose and the carrying costs of its enormous debt load became more burdensome.

In December 2025, The Economist reported that Altice had divided itself into three separate entities, with the American arm having stood alone since 2018. The publication noted that Drahi had "bested his lenders yet again," describing a pattern in which the billionaire repeatedly used aggressive financial and legal maneuvers to restructure debt on favorable terms while retaining control of his assets.

The Financial Times reported in early 2026 that Drahi had shifted assets worth billions away from creditors, describing a process in which he had "hollowed out a key entity of his heavily indebted telecoms empire" through a series of moves that alarmed bondholders. Bloomberg's editorial board described Altice bondholders as "suckers for punishment," arguing that distressed-debt investors who had bet on the company's restructuring were being outmaneuvered by Drahi's financial tactics.

The Financial Times had previously reported on the broader financial difficulties facing Altice, highlighting concerns about the sustainability of the group's debt levels and the potential implications for its various operating companies across Europe.

Israeli Media Interests

In 2026, Drahi emerged as a bidder for Reshet 13, a major Israeli television channel. According to The Jerusalem Post, businessman Len Blavatnik selected an offer led by Drahi to purchase the channel. The report noted that Drahi is "frequently seen with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu."

The proposed acquisition drew scrutiny. Haaretz raised questions about whether "a businessman drowning in debt" should be permitted to control a major Israeli news channel, reporting that bond prices and overseas reports suggested Drahi was near default, "raising doubts about his ability to own" such a media outlet.

A competing bid for Reshet 13 was mounted by a group led by Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport, which raised its offer to $120 million in an effort to outbid Drahi's group, despite a signed term sheet with the rival consortium.

Acquisition of Molotov Platform

In addition to his traditional cable and telecom holdings, Drahi has pursued acquisitions in digital media. Altice entered exclusive discussions to acquire a majority stake in Molotov, a French over-the-top television platform, as the company sought to expand its media distribution capabilities.

Personal Life

Patrick Drahi is married to Lina Nazirah Zenie, and the couple have four children. The family resides in Switzerland, in the Geneva area.

Drahi's Swiss residency has attracted attention from local tax authorities. Swiss public broadcaster RTS reported that Drahi, described as "the boss of BFM TV" (one of Altice's French media properties), had been "caught up by the Geneva tax authorities," suggesting a dispute over his tax arrangements in the canton.

Drahi and his wife established the Patrick and Lina Drahi Foundation (PLFA), a philanthropic organization. The foundation has been involved in sponsoring the Europaweg, a hiking trail in Switzerland, among other activities. Drahi has also been described as one of the largest private benefactors of the École Polytechnique, a leading French engineering institution, as indicated by the context of his 2015 photograph taken at the school.

Drahi holds dual French and Israeli citizenship. His connections in Israel have drawn media attention, particularly in the context of his bid for Reshet 13, with the Jerusalem Post noting his proximity to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Recognition

Drahi has been profiled by Forbes as one of the world's billionaires, with the publication tracking his net worth as part of its annual rankings. His business career has been the subject of extensive coverage by major international publications including the Financial Times, The Economist, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, and The New Yorker.

The French media observatory OJIM has profiled Drahi as a figure at the center of French media and business, noting the extent of his influence through his ownership of telecommunications and media properties including BFM TV and RMC.

His acquisition of Sotheby's placed him at the intersection of the worlds of finance and fine art, making him one of the most discussed figures in art market circles. The New Yorker's 2025 investigation into his management of the auction house attracted significant attention and debate about the impact of leveraged buyout methods on cultural institutions.

Legacy

Patrick Drahi's career represents one of the most prominent examples of debt-driven corporate empire-building in European business history. Through Altice, he consolidated fragmented cable and telecommunications operators across France, Portugal, Israel, and the United States into a multinational group, employing levels of financial leverage that were exceptional even by the standards of the capital-intensive telecommunications industry.

His acquisition strategy — buying undervalued or underloved assets with substantial borrowed capital, then seeking to extract value through cost-cutting and operational improvements — drew comparisons to American cable moguls and leveraged buyout practitioners. The strategy produced rapid growth and propelled Drahi into the ranks of the world's wealthiest individuals, but it also left his empire vulnerable to rising interest rates and economic downturns.

The financial distress that enveloped Altice in the mid-2020s, and Drahi's aggressive maneuvering to retain control of his assets while restructuring debt, became a case study in the tensions between leveraged entrepreneurs and their creditors. Bloomberg described the situation as a cautionary tale for distressed-debt investors, while The Economist noted Drahi's repeated ability to outmaneuver his lenders through sophisticated financial and legal strategies.

His ownership of Sotheby's introduced Drahi to a broader public audience and raised questions about the application of private equity-style management to cultural institutions. The New Yorker's account of turmoil at the auction house under his ownership became one of the most widely read investigations into the consequences of financial engineering in the art world.

As of 2026, Drahi remained an active and controversial figure, pursuing new media acquisitions in Israel while simultaneously navigating one of the most complex corporate debt restructurings in European history.