Patrick Drahi

Patrick Drahi
Ecole polytechnique · CC BY-SA 2.0 · source
Name	Patrick Drahi
Birth date	20 August 1963
Birth place	Casablanca, Morocco
Citizenship	France, Israel, Portugal
Occupation	Businessman, investor
Known for	Founder of Altice
Net worth	US$5.5 billion (April 2024)
Spouse	Lina Drahi

Patrick Drahi. He is a French-Israeli billionaire businessman, best known as the founder of the multinational telecommunications and media conglomerate Altice. Through a series of aggressive acquisitions, he built a vast empire spanning cable, mobile, and content assets across Europe, the United States, and the Caribbean. Drahi's career is marked by high-leverage deals and transformative moves in the telecom sector, including the pivotal takeover of French telecom giant SFR.

Early life and education

Born in Casablanca to a family of Moroccan Jews, he emigrated to Montpellier, France, with his family at the age of 15. He demonstrated an early aptitude for engineering and technology, which led him to pursue higher education at the prestigious École Polytechnique in Paris, followed by the École des Mines de Paris. His academic background in engineering and applied science provided a strong technical foundation for his future ventures in the infrastructure-heavy telecommunications industry. After completing his studies, he began his professional career at the Dutch electronics firm Philips before moving into cable television.

Career and business ventures

His initial foray into business involved co-founding a cable television equipment company. He later founded Altice in 2001, using it as a vehicle for a relentless acquisition strategy, often financed with significant debt. His first major expansion was into the Caribbean, acquiring assets like Cable & Wireless operations. He then entered the Israeli market by purchasing HOT and later consolidating his position with the acquisition of Partner Communications. A landmark move was the 2015 purchase of Suddenlink Communications in the United States, followed by the even larger acquisition of Cablevision from the Dolan family in 2016, creating Altice USA. These deals established him as a formidable force in global telecom and cable.

Altice and SFR

The creation and evolution of the Altice empire is central to his legacy. The company's most transformative deal in Europe was the 2014 takeover of SFR, France's second-largest mobile operator, in a fierce bidding war against rival Bouygues. This acquisition, merging SFR with his existing Numericable cable business, created Altice France and reshaped the competitive landscape of the French telecommunications market. Under his leadership, Altice pursued deep cost-cutting and integration, a strategy that drew both admiration and criticism. His influence extended to media, with Altice owning news channel BFM TV and broad interests in Portugal through Altice Portugal (formerly Portugal Telecom). In recent years, he has taken the group private and faced challenges related to corporate debt and market pressures.

Philanthropy and art collection

Outside of business, he is a significant philanthropist and a major figure in the global art world. His philanthropic efforts are channeled primarily through the Drahi Foundation, which supports educational, cultural, and social causes in Israel, France, and Switzerland. He is particularly noted for his patronage of the arts, having amassed one of the world's most valuable private collections of modern and contemporary art, featuring works by masters like Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Mark Rothko. In 2019, he made a landmark €100 million donation to the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, one of the largest ever private gifts to a French cultural institution.

Personal life

He maintains a notably private lifestyle despite his public business dealings. He holds triple citizenship from France, Israel, and Portugal. He is married to Lina Drahi, and the couple has four children. A committed Zionist, he has invested heavily in Israel, including in media and technology. His primary residences are in Geneva, Switzerland, and Tel Aviv, and he is known to be an avid art collector. In 2021, he increased his profile in the art world by acquiring a controlling stake in the international auction house Sotheby's, taking it private.

Category:1963 births Category:Living people Category:French billionaires Category:French businesspeople Category:Israeli billionaires Category:Moroccan emigrants to France