Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

Sotheby’s eBay Deal Bumps Stock Over Crucial Barrier

July 14, 2014 by Marion Maneker

Loeb Sotheby's on Bloomberg 714

The past few months have been tough for Sotheby’s stock. The resolution of the company’s fight with activist investor Dan Loeb left the auction house’s stock walking a knife’s edge, the crucial $40 floor/ceiling price for the stock. When Sotheby’s trades above $40, the price acts as a floor bringing in buyers if it falls too low. But once the stock is below $40, the price acts as a ceiling with investors selling every time the price approaches the magic $40 number.

Sotheby’s successful Impressionist and Modern sale briefly shot the stock through the $40 ceiling. But an overall lack of momentum and a broader market downdraft pulled the stock back under the price barrier.

Bloomberg is giving Dan Loeb credit for today’s move with eBay. That hardly seems fair to Sotheby’s management. After all, there’s plenty of history between eBay and Sotheby’s—not all of it good.

eBay advisor, Josh Baer, won’t comment on the negotiations but a deal like this would have taken a fair bit more time arrange than two months since the board fight was resolved.

Today, the market is up and Sotheby’s (BID) is up even more, rising more than 1% on the eBay news. Time will tell whether buyers will come in the next time BID flirts with the $40 floor but the eBay arrangement gives them something more than hope to build upon.

Sotheby's Stock Chart YTD 714

More from Art Market Monitor

  • Big Rise in Old Master Sales Doesn’t ImpressBig Rise in Old Master Sales Doesn’t Impress
  • Beijing Freeport to Arrive in Late 2013
  • Getty Acquires Camille Claudel Work Alongside a RodinGetty Acquires Camille Claudel Work Alongside a Rodin
  • ArtList’s 5 Art World Updates: New MoMA Apartments & Gaudí’s First House to ReopenArtList’s 5 Art World Updates: New MoMA Apartments & Gaudí’s First House to Reopen
  • Hirst HystericsHirst Hysterics
  • Artnet Gets In On the Picasso Ceramics TrendArtnet Gets In On the Picasso Ceramics Trend

Filed Under: General

About Marion Maneker

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

Top Posts

  • After Pandemic’s Rapid Change, Sotheby’s Has 8 Predictions for 2021
  • Keith Haring’s 1989 Retrospect Comes to Sotheby’s London Prints Sale
  • Tony Podesta's Secret Art Buying
  • A Season of Improvisation: Fall 2020 New York Modern and Contemporary Art Auction Analysis
  • Four of Picasso's Women Valued at $28m Come to Christie's from Rose-Walters Collection
  • Norman Rockwell's Not Gay. But Is He a Great Artist?
  • Roy Lichtenstein’s Top Ten Auction Prices
  • Basquiat's Last Girlfriend
  • How to Chant Like an Auctioneer
  • Phillips Includes $2.5m Norman Rockwell Painting in November Evening Sale
  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor