Patrick Drahi

Patrick Drahi
Born	(1963-08-20) August 20, 1963 Casablanca, Morocco
Nationality	Moroccan, Israeli, Portuguese, formerly French
Occupation(s)	Entrepreneur, investor
Years active	1986–present
Known for	Founder and majority owner of Altice

Patrick Drahi (; ; ; born 20 August 1963) is a Moroccan–Israeli billionaire entrepreneur and investor specializing in media and telecommunications sectors. He is the founder and majority owner of the European telecommunications conglomerate Altice. Drahi currently lives in Switzerland.

Early life and education

Born into a Jewish family in Casablanca, Morocco, Drahi’s parents were both mathematics educators. Demonstrating an early aptitude for mathematics, he was assisting with grading math tests by age 11. At 15, his family relocated to Montpellier, France. He earned an electrical engineering degree from École Polytechnique in Paris and completed postgraduate studies in optics and electronics at Télécom Paris in 1986.

Career

Following his postgraduate completion in 1986, Drahi began his career as a fibre optics researcher at Philips. By 1990, he transitioned to consulting in the United States, focusing on investments in European cable companies. In 1994, he launched Sud Câble Services in France, obtaining local licenses to install cable television infrastructure. He sold this company four years later to John C. Malone's firm UPC, receiving UPC shares and working out of Geneva before divesting his holdings for roughly €40 million prior to the dot-com bubble burst.

In 2001, Drahi founded the holding company Altice ATCE.AS based in Amsterdam, which quickly expanded through acquisitions of European cable operators. He created the French cable operator Numericable and acquired SFR—France’s second-largest mobile and internet provider—from Vivendi in 2013. In the United Kingdom, Drahi initially acquired an 18% stake in BT in 2021, raising it to 24.5% by 2023.

Drahi also owns Israeli cable provider HOT and established the international news channel i24news in Israel in 2013, broadcasting content in French, Arabic, and English.

Altice entered the American telecommunications market in 2015 by purchasing a 70% share of Suddenlink Communications, the seventh-largest cable operator in the US. Later that year, Drahi acquired Cablevision from the Dolan family, rebranding it as Altice USA; its main brand Optimum became the fifth-largest US cable company. In 2018, Altice USA faced a lawsuit from the Dolans alleging violations of sale agreements.

In September 2020, Drahi proposed a €2.5 billion offer to minority shareholders to take Altice private; this offer was increased and accepted by January 2021.

In June 2019, Drahi purchased Sotheby's at a premium of 61%. To manage debt levels and support expansion efforts, he sold a $1 billion stake to ADQ in 2024.

Forbes ranking

As of June 2015, Forbes valued Drahi’s net worth at approximately US$26.5 billion, ranking him as the world’s 56th wealthiest individual and third richest in France. He held the title of Israel’s wealthiest person until 2016 before moving to second place. , Forbes estimates his net worth at US$7.9 billion, positioning him as the 404th richest globally.

On 15 March 2024, Drahi announced the sale of Altice Média to Rodolphe Saadé for just over €1.5 billion as part of efforts to reduce parent company debt, which was around €24 billion as of September 2023.

Personal life

Drahi wedded Lina Nazirah (née Zenie), a Greek Orthodox Syrian who became a Swiss citizen, in 1990. The couple moved to Switzerland in 1999 and currently live in Geneva. They have four children: Graziella, who previously served as Vice President of Growth at Altice USA; Angélina, who leads the family's charitable foundation; and twins David, a board member of Altice USA since 2019, and Nathan, who has been Managing Director of Sotheby's Asia since 2021.

In 2014, Drahi and his spouse established the Patrick and Lina Drahi Foundation, dedicated to advancing science, education, entrepreneurship, the arts, and Jewish initiatives. Based in Zermatt, Switzerland since 2016, the foundation primarily supports projects in Switzerland, France, and Portugal.

That same year, Drahi gave up his French nationality in favor of Israeli citizenship, and it is reported that he obtained Portuguese nationality in 2015. He currently holds citizenship in all three nations.