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Sotheby's to cut jobs to pare costs

Auction house posts loss for five of last nine quarters, sees employee-related restructuring charges of $13 million in current quarter

Reuters
Last Updated : Jul 19 2014 | 4:34 PM IST

Sotheby's said it would cut an unspecified number of jobs to cut cost, months after ending a long-running battle with billionaire investor Daniel Loeb by appointing him to its board.

Sotheby's shares rose 3 percent to $39 on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Friday.

Loeb, a prominent art collector, has long criticized Sotheby's for spending too much and not being properly positioned in the modern art market.

Loeb runs Third Point, Sotheby's biggest shareholder with a stake of 9.7 percent as of May.

The auction house, which has reported a loss for five of the last nine quarters, said on Friday it expects employee-related restructuring charges of about $13 million in the current quarter.

The job cuts, mainly impacting the company's U.S. and UK operations, are expected to be fully implemented by the end of the year, Sotheby's said.

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Sotheby's had 1,577 employees as of Dec. 31, 2013, with 618 in North America and South America, and 521 in the UK.

The restructuring plan, the result of a strategic review, will result in the reallocation of resources to collecting categories and regions with the highest growth opportunity, the company said.

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First Published: Jul 19 2014 | 4:13 PM IST

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