Online arts auction platform Auctionata has laid off more than half of its employees yesterday, Art Info reports, part of a strategy by the company to focus on cost-efficiency. Since launching less than three years ago, the company has raised nearly $100 million in capital, including recent funding of almost $50 million. (more…)
After reporting yesterday that Leon Black‘s publishing house Phaidon Press was in talks to purchase online art gallery Artspace, Bloomberg has published an article confirming the deal. Although the price paid by Phaidon for Artspace remains unknown, the article reports that, when Auctionata was in talks to acquire the gallery, Artspace had been valued at just under $5 million. The article also points out that this merger will give Phaidon Press and, by extension, Leon Black access to Artspace’s extensive mailing list of 150,000 active art collectors, increasing “[Phaidon’s] access to global art collectors who are also consumers of its art and design books and multimedia products”.
An article on Bloomberg.com reports that collector and billionaire Leon Black is in talks to purchase Artspace through Phaidon Press, the publishing company he bought in 2012. Artspace has been in the news recently for its lower-than-expected sales figures, especially compared to its early success in fundraising. Previous reports indicated that the online auction site Auctionata was a prime contender to acquire Artspace but the Bloomberg article suggests that a deal between Black’s Phaidon Press and Artspace could be signed by the end of the week. (more…)
Artspace, a start-up digital marketplace for contemporary art, is currently involved in acquisition talks with Auctionata, an online auction house. Although Artspace showed early promise by raising upwards of $12 million in funds, this past year has turned out surprisingly anemic sales figures: just $577,000 in total annual sales, according to a leaked chart. In addition, since Artspace creates income from commissions, the actual annual revenue for the site would presumably be only a fraction of this six-figure sales number. (more…)