Patrick Drahi (; ; ; born 20 August 1963) is a Moroccan–Israeli billionaire

magnate The term magnate, from the late Latin ''magnas'', a great man, itself from Latin ''magnus'', "great", means a man from the higher nobility, a man who belongs to the high office-holders or a man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or ot ...

and investor with interests in media and telecoms. He is the founder and controlling shareholder of the European-based telecom group Altice. He lives in Switzerland.

Early life and education

Drahi was born into a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family in

Casablanca Casablanca (, ) is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a populatio ...

, Morocco. His parents both taught mathematics. He taught himself to play the piano and was gifted with numbers to the extent that, at age 11, he was helping his parents grade their students’ mathematics exams. When he was 15, the family moved to

Montpellier Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...

, France. Drahi earned an electrical engineering degree from

École Polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...

in Paris, and a post-graduate degree in optics and electronics from Télécom Paris in 1986.

Career

After completing his postgraduate degree in 1986, Drahi then began work as a fibre optics researcher at

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

. He resigned in 1990 to go into business for himself, initially consulting in the United States on investment in European cable providers. In 1994, in France, he founded Sud Câble Services; he and an American partner convinced mayors in southern France to allow them to lay cable for television in their towns. In 1998 he sold the company to John C. Malone's UPC. Drahi was paid in UPC stock and went to Geneva to work for the company. He sold his position in UPC for approximately €40 million just before the

dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Interne ...

burst. In 2001, he founded the Amsterdam-based holding company Altice ATCE.AS, which soon began to buy up European cable companies. In France, he founded the French cable operator Numericable and in 2013 bought SFR, the second largest mobile phone and internet provider in the country, from media conglomerate

Vivendi Vivendi SE (stylized in all lowercase) is a French investment company headquartered in Paris. It currently wholly-owns Gameloft as well as a number of investments in several companies, primarily involved in content, entertainment, media, and t ...

. In the UK, he bought 18% of the telecom BT in 2021 and in 2023 increased his stake to 24.5%. Drahi owns the Israeli cable television company HOT. In 2013 he founded the Israel-based international news channel

i24news i24NEWS is a International news channels, 24-hour news television channel created by journalists and reporters from Israel. It broadcasts in languages such as French language, French, English language, English, Hebrew language, Hebrew, and Ara ...

, which broadcasts in French, Arabic, and English. Altice entered the American

Telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

market in 2015 by purchasing 70% of Suddenlink Communications, the seventh-largest cable company in the US. Later in 2015, Drahi bought

Cablevision Cablevision Systems Corporation was an American cable television company with systems serving areas surrounding New York City. It was the fifth-largest cable provider and ninth-largest television provider in the United States. Throughout its ex ...

from the Dolan family, renaming it Altice USA with its flagship brand Optimum being the fifth largest cable operator in the USA. In 2018, the Dolans sued Altice USA over alleged violations of the terms of the sale. In September 2020, to take the company private, Drahi offered €2.5 billion to minority shareholders of Altice. An increased bid was accepted in January 2021. In June 2019,

Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

announced it was being acquired by Drahi at a 61% market premium. To cut debts and fund growth, in 2024 Drahi sold a $1bn stake to ADQ.

Forbes ranking

In June 2015, ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' estimated Drahi's net worth at

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

26.5 billion and ranked him as the 56th richest person in the world and the third richest in France. He was ranked as the richest person in Israel until 2016, when he came in second. , ''Forbes'' lists his net worth at US$7.5 billion, ranking him 414th in the world. On 15 March 2024, Drahi announced the sale of Altice Média to Rodolphe Saadé for just over €1.5 billion, in order to pay off some of the parent company's debt, estimated at €24 billion at the end of September 2023.

Personal life

Drahi married Lina Nazirah (née Zenie), a

Greek Orthodox Greek Orthodox Church (, , ) is a term that can refer to any one of three classes of Christian Churches, each associated in some way with Greek Christianity, Levantine Arabic-speaking Christians or more broadly the rite used in the Eastern Rom ...

Syrian naturalized in Switzerland, in 1990. They moved to Switzerland in 1999 and live in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

. They have four children: Graziella, who is Vice President–Growth at Altice USA, Angélina, who chairs the family's charity foundation, and twin sons David, who joined the board of directors of Altice USA in 2019, and Nathan, who formerly worked in London in

private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...

and was appointed Managing Director of Sotheby's Asia in 2021. In 2014, Drahi and his wife Lina created their family foundation, the Patrick and Lina Drahi Foundation, to support innovative programmes in the areas of science and education, entrepreneurship and innovation, the arts, and Israel and the Jewish people, through organizational grants. Incorporated in 2016 and headquartered in

Zermatt Zermatt (, ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Visp (district), Visp in the German language, German-speaking section of the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It has a year-round population of about 5,800 and is cl ...

, Switzerland, the foundation supports programmes in Switzerland, France and Portugal.PLFA Foundation website
/ref> In 2014, Drahi's lawyer informed the magazine '' Challenges'', who intended to include him in a list of France's top 500 fortunes, that he had given up his French citizenship and taken Israeli citizenship. But he reportedly acquired Portuguese citizenship in 2015, and has since been described as a citizen of all three countries.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drahi, Patrick 1963 births École Polytechnique alumni Télécom Paris alumni Israeli billionaires French mass media owners 20th-century Moroccan Jews Businesspeople from Casablanca Living people Businesspeople from Geneva Cable television company founders French television company founders Altice (company)