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Sotheby's goes online
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January 19, 1999: 10:40 a.m. ET
Auction house to launch Internet business, names new exec to run it
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Shares of Sotheby's rocketed more than 20 percent Tuesday after the world's oldest international auction house said it is set to begin peddling its wares in cyberspace.
Sotheby's will launch sothebys.com, a new Internet auction business for art, antiques, jewelry and collectibles, said Diana D. Brooks, president and chief executive of Sotheby's Holdings, Inc., the parent company of Sotheby's worldwide auction, art-related financing and real-estate activities.
The company named Susan L. Solomon, formerly president and CEO of Sony Worldwide Networks and most recently chairman and chief executive of Lancit Media, to run the new business unit. She also was named executive vice president of Sotheby's Holdings.
"With the launch of sothebys.com, Sotheby's enters an exciting new era," Brooks said. "It is clear that the Internet is superbly suited for holding auctions and it is equally clear that it offers great possibilities for Sotheby's."
The company said it expects to spend more than $25 million in the start-up phase of the new venture, which likely will dilute its results in the "near term."
Sotheby's (BID) has 110 offices in 46 countries. Shares of the company surged 8-1/16 to 39-1/8 following the announcement on the New York Stock Exchange.
Sotheby's is riding the wave of investor optimism that has swept over Internet-related stocks, and online auction houses in particular.
In September, shares of eBay Inc., an online auctioneer that sells everything from Beanie Babies to computers, soared more than 163 percent in its first day of trading. 
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Sotheby's
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