Drahi is the founder of Altice, the second largest telecommunications operator in France. The company, which also operates in Portugal and Israel, was taken private in 2021 after its New York-based subsidiary, Altice USA, became publicly traded via a spin-off in 2018. Altice USA reported revenue of $9 billion in 2024.
The majority of Drahi's fortune is derived from Altice, a group of cable TV companies. He controls the companies through his closely held vehicle Next LP, which is based in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a UK crown dependency.
Drahi previously owned about 40% of the "A" shares and 85% of the "B" shares of Altice Europe according to company filings with the Dutch securities regulator. His offer to take the company private was approved by shareholders on Jan. 7, 2021, according to a company press release. A liability has been added to reflect Drahi's acquisition of the remainder of the outstanding shares. Altice is the second largest telecommunications company in France, according to its website.
The spin-off of Altice USA from the European business was completed on May 22, 2018. It was renamed Optimum Communications in 2025 and Drahi owns about 40% of the shares, according to the 2025 proxy statement.
Drahi accumulated a stake of nearly one-quarter in British telecoms company BT Group through closely held Altice UK through 2023.
The billionaire acquired Sotheby's in 2019 and the auction house is included here based on the equity value implied by the transaction. Debt associated with the deal is recorded as a separate liability.
Patrick Drahi was born on Aug. 20, 1963, in Casablanca, Morocco. When he was 15 years old, he moved with his math teacher parents to southern France. A naturally gifted math student, he graduated from France's selective engineering school, Ecole Polytechnique, then went on to earn a post-graduate degree in optics and electronics from Ecole Nationale Superieure de Telecommunications de Paris in 1986.
Drahi's first job after graduating was as head of international marketing for a Dutch satellite and cable company, Philips Group. His dream as a young student was to one day become CEO of a global company. While at Philips, he realized that the dream could take more than 30 years to materialize if he continued along that career path. So he left the company in 1993, and with the help of a friend, Pascal Orhan, set up CMA, a consulting firm specializing in telecommunications and media. While doing so, he also founded two French cable companies, Sud Cable Services and Mediareseaux.
By 2002, he'd sold both the cable companies and decided to start his own investment holding group, which he called Altice. Focused on cable, telecom and internet assets, Drahi acquired stakes in companies from Belgium to Mauritius, including Israeli cable TV provider, Hot Telecommunication System, Portuguese cable company, Cabovisao, and Odo, the Dominican Republic's second-largest mobile operator. Along with private equity groups, Carlyle and Cinven, he helped create France's largest cable operator, Numbericable, which was listed in Paris in November 2013.
Altice raised more than $1.8 billion in an initial public offering on the Amsterdam stock exchange in January 2014. In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Drahi said the aim of the offering was to boost Altice's recognition globally, as it seeks more acquisitions.
Altice USA, a spin-off of the European business, began trading publicly in New York in 2018.
In June 2019, it was announced that Drahi had agreed to buy Sotheby's in a deal that implied an enterprise value of about $3.7 billion for the publicly traded auction house.