Amazon buys Sotheby's slice

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Updated:

 

Online bookseller Amazon.com is buying a potential £1 billion stake in Sotheby's Holdings as the two companies team up to market an online auction service.

Amazon.com is reportedly investing $45 million (£28 million) in 1.7% of Sotheby's, in line with current market prices of about $35 a share, $10 million of which is for a three-year warrant enabling the e-commerce specialist to acquire a further one million shares at $100 each. Full details are to be announced later today.

Sotheby's, founded in 1744 to sell books, is already working on sothebys.com, a website which will give details of conventional auctions but it wants to get into electronic direct sales.

Amazon.com, founded in 1995, launched an online auction service in April which sells used books but chief executive Jeff Bezos wants to move upmarket. Sotheby's will continue with sothebys.com, due to be launched this autumn.

Bezos and Diana Brooks, Sotheby's president, said they want to co-operate on sothebys.amazon.com, a jointly-run website selling rare coins and books, sports memorabilia and post-1945 collectibles. The deal will reassure collectors who up to now have been wary about buying expensive items online, Bezos argued.

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