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More on the Phillips Deal

By Intellectual Property Law, Esq.

Judd Tully reports that "although the sums involved in the private transaction were not released, a source familiar with the deal says that Mercury paid approximately $60 million for its majority share, of which 'around 50 percent' was to cover Phillips?s debt." He adds:

"The takeover caps a nearly 10-year roller-coaster ride for [Phillips]. In 1999 the French businessman Bernard Arnault and his LVHM group acquired Phillips for a reported $120 million. A year later, Arnault brought in the former Sotheby?s executives Simon de Pury and Daniella Luxembourg to run the company, which he merged with their Zurich gallery, de Pury & Luxembourg. The resulting firm, Phillips de Pury & Luxembourg, was cast as a threat to the duopoly of Christie?s and Sotheby?s. After huge investments failed to win Phillips a significant share of the Impressionist, modern and contemporary art markets, LVHM?s ambitious strategy foundered in a sea of red ink. Arnault and company gradually bowed out of the partnership, ceding control to de Pury & Luxembourg in February 2002; the following January, LVHM sold its remaining stake for a token sum. In March 2004 Luxembourg resigned to start her own dealership and art-investment fund, selling her shares to de Pury, with whom she still maintains the Zurich gallery, which Mercury did not acquire in the deal."

Full post as published by The Art Law Blog on December 02, 2008 (boomark / email).