Patrick Drahi
Drahi in 2015
Born (1963-08-20) 20 August 1963
Casablanca, Morocco
NationalityIsraeli[1]
French (formerly)[nt 1]
EducationÉcole Polytechnique, Télécom Paris
OccupationBusinessman
TitleChairman of Altice and Altice USA
SpouseLina Nazirah Zenie
Children4

Patrick Drahi (French pronunciation: [patʁik dʁai]; Arabic: باتريك دراحي; Hebrew: פטריק דרהי; born 20 August 1963)[2] is an Israeli billionaire magnate and investor with interests in media and telecoms.[1] He is the founder and controlling shareholder of the European-based telecom group Altice. A former French citizen,[1] he lives in Switzerland.

Early life and education

Drahi was born into a Jewish family in Casablanca, Morocco. His parents both taught mathematics. When he was 15, the family moved to Montpellier, France.[3][4] Drahi earned an engineering degree from École Polytechnique in Paris, and a post-graduate degree in optics and electronics from Télécom Paris.[3][5][6]

Career

After completing his postgraduate degree in 1986, Drahi began work as a fibre optics researcher at Philips. He resigned in 1990 to go into business for himself, initially consulting in the United States on investment in European cable providers. In 1994, in France, he founded Sud Câble Services;[3] he and an American partner convinced mayors in southern France to allow them to lay cable for television in their towns. In 1998 he sold the company to John C. Malone's UPC. Drahi was paid in UPC stock and went to Geneva to work for the company. He sold his position in UPC for approximately €40 million just before the dot-com bubble burst.[3][7]

In 2001, he founded the Amsterdam-based holding company Altice ATCE.AS, which soon began to buy up European cable companies.[7] In France, he founded the French cable operator Numericable and in 2013 bought SFR, the second largest mobile phone and internet provider in the country, from media conglomerate Vivendi.[7][8] In the UK, he bought 18% of the telecom BT in 2021[9] and in 2023 increased his stake to 24.5%.[10][11]

Drahi owns the Israeli cable television company HOT.[12] In 2013 he founded the Israel-based international news channel i24news, which broadcasts in French, Arabic, and English.[13]

Altice entered the American telecommunications market in 2015 by purchasing 70% of Suddenlink Communications, the seventh-largest cable company in the US.[3][9][14] Later in 2015, Drahi bought Cablevision from the Dolan family, renaming it Altice USA with its flagship brand Optimum being the fifth largest cable operator in the USA.[12][15] In 2018, the Dolans sued Altice USA over alleged violations of the terms of the sale.[16]

In June 2019, Sotheby's announced it was being acquired by Drahi at a 61% market premium.[2][17]

In September 2020, to take the company private, Drahi offered €2.5 billion to minority shareholders of Altice.[18] An increased bid was accepted in January 2021.[19]

In June 2015, Forbes estimated Drahi's net worth at $26.5 billion and ranked him as the 57th richest person in the world and the third richest in France.[20] He was ranked as the richest person in Israel until 2016, when he came in second.[12][21] As of December 2023, Forbes lists his net worth at $4.9 billion, ranking him 584th in the world.[9]

Personal life

Drahi married Lina Nazirah (née Zenie), a Greek Orthodox Syrian naturalized in Switzerland, in 1990.[3][22][23] They moved to Switzerland in 1999[24] and live in Geneva.[25] They have four children: Graziella, who is Vice President–Growth at Altice USA,[26] Angélina, who chairs the family's charity foundation,[27] and twin sons[25] David, who joined the board of directors of Altice USA in 2019,[28] and Nathan, who formerly worked in London in private equity and was appointed Managing Director of Sotheby's Asia in 2021.[29]

In 2014, Drahi and his wife Lina created their family foundation, the Patrick and Lina Drahi Foundation, to support innovative programs in the areas of science and education, entrepreneurship and innovation, the arts, and Israel and the Jewish people, through organizational grants. Incorporated in 2016 and headquartered in Zermatt, Switzerland, the foundation supports programs in Switzerland, France and Portugal.[30][31][32]

In 2014, Drahi's lawyer informed the magazine Challenges, who intended to include him in a list of France's top 500 fortunes, that he had given up his French citizenship and taken Israeli citizenship.[1][33] But he reportedly acquired Portuguese citizenship in 2015,[34] and has since been described as a citizen of all three countries.[2][11]

Notes

  1. ↑ In 2014, Challenges magazine reported that a legal representative of Drahi had stated that he renounced his French nationality to became an Israeli national. It is unclear when he gave up his French citizenship or when he became an Israeli national. But in 2019 and later he has been described in the press as holding French, Israeli, and Portuguese citizenship.

    References

    1. 1 2 3 4 Eric Treguier (14 March 2014). "Le futur actionnaire de SFR a-t-il renoncé à être français?". Challenges (in French). Or Patrick Drahi ne figure pas dans notre classement 2013 des 500 fortunes françaises paru en juillet dernier. [...] Challenges a reçu une lettre d'Alexandre Marque (Cabinet Franklin), avocat de Patrick Drahi nous sommant de ne pas intégrer son client dans notre top 500. L'argument invoqué? 'Mr Drahi a pris la nationalité israélienne et renoncé à la nationalité française.'.
    2. 1 2 3 "Drahi, self-made French cable tycoon with rich taste in art". France 24. AFP. 17 June 2019.
    3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Nicola Clark (7 September 2015). "Patrick Drahi Positions Himself to Be a Player in U.S. Cable". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 11 September 2015.
    4. ↑ Clara Teixeira (17 September 2017). "Quem é Patrick Drahi, o homem que quer juntar a TVI à PT". Visāo (in Portuguese).
    5. ↑ "Patrick Drahi". Forbes. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
    6. ↑ "Patrick Drahi". Bloomberg Business. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
    7. 1 2 3 Nicholas Vinocur; Leila Abboud (14 March 2014). "Outsider Patrick Drahi defies French establishment to win SFR". Reuters.
    8. ↑ Matthew Campbell; Maria Mawad; Francois de Beaupuy (7 April 2014). "Vivendi Agrees to Sell SFR to Altice in $23 Billion Deal". Bloomberg News.
    9. 1 2 3 "Profile: Patrick Drahi". Forbes. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
    10. ↑ Mark Sweney (23 May 2023). "French billionaire Patrick Drahi ups BT stake to more than 24%". The Guardian.
    11. 1 2 Mark Sweney (10 June 2021). "Who is Patrick Drahi, the billionaire who has become BT's biggest investor?". The Guardian.
    12. 1 2 3 "Patrick Drahi's Altice to buy Cablevision for $17.7b". Globes. 17 September 2015. Retrieved 31 July 2017.
    13. ↑ Amitai Ziv (26 April 2016). "The Ticker: i24News Valued at $113 Million in Altice Media Holdings Shake-up". Haaretz.
    14. ↑ Marie Mawad; Elco van Groningen; Gerry Smith (19 May 2015). "Altice to Acquire Suddenlink Stake in $9.1 Billion U.S. Deal". Bloomberg.
    15. ↑ Bill Chapell (17 September 2015). "Cablevision, 5th-Largest U.S. Cable Firm, To Be Sold In $17.7 Billion Deal". NPR.
    16. ↑ Dade Hayes (4 September 2018). "Cablevision's Dolan Family Sues Altice Over Alleged Breach Of 2016 Merger, Claiming Ageism In News 12 Layoffs". Deadline.
    17. ↑ "Sotheby's to Be Sold, Jolting the Art World". Wall Street Journal. 17 June 2019. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
    18. ↑ Nic Fildes; Nikou Asgari (11 September 2020). "Drahi offers to take Altice Europe private in €2.5bn buyout". Financial Times. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
    19. ↑ "Billionaire Drahi gets green light to take Altice Europe private - union". Reuters. 7 January 2021. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
    20. ↑ "#57 Patrick Drahi". Forbes. Archived from the original on 29 June 2015.
    21. ↑ אבריאל, איתן. "500 העשירים: האיש שחזר לפיסגה עם 8.3 מיליארד דולר". TheMarker. Retrieved 10 November 2016.
    22. ↑ "Le patron de BFM TV Patrick Drahi est rattrapé par le fisc genevois". rts.ch (in French). 1 November 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2023.
    23. ↑ "Portrait: Patrick Drahi". Ojim.fr (in French). Retrieved 12 December 2023.
    24. ↑ Grégory Raymond (14 March 2014). "Qui est Patrick Drahi, le sulfureux patron de Numericable". Huffington Post.fr (in French).
    25. 1 2 Adam Thomson (22 May 2015). "French telecoms outsider is more easyJet than jet set". Financial Times.
    26. ↑ "Altice USA Inc.: Graziella Drahi". Wall Street Journal Market Data. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
    27. ↑ Michal Galanti (2 November 2021). "Cornerstone laid in Jerusalem. Find out where". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
    28. ↑ "Board of Directors". Altice USA. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
    29. ↑ "Nathan Drahi: Managing Director, Asia". Sotheby's. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
    30. ↑ PLFA Foundation website
    31. ↑ "PLFA The Patrick and Lina Drahi Foundation" Dun & Bradstreet Directory
    32. ↑ "PLFA – The Patrick and Lina Drahi Foundation". Europaweg Grachen Zermatt.
    33. ↑ Eric Treguier (14 March 2014). "Quand le futur actionnaire de SFR voulait renoncer à être Français". Challenges (in French). Retrieved 12 December 2023.
    34. ↑ Zvika Klein (18 July 2022). "Portuguese police search home of lawyers helping Jews get citizenship". The Jerusalem Post.
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