Hedge Fund Billionaire Daniel Loeb has gone on the offensive towards Sotheby’s Auction House today, calling for the resignation of company chairman, CEO and president William Ruprecht for his alleged lack of leadership and excessive pay.  Loeb recently became a leading stock holder in the auction house with his activist investment firm Third Point, and many forecast that he will use his position to force major changes in Sotheby’s operating model.   “Our research suggests Sotheby’s crisis of leadership has created dysfunctional divisions and a fractured culture. There is a demoralizing recognition among employees that Sotheby’s is not at the cutting edge,” Loeb writes in an open letter. (more…)

Activist Hedge-Fund Investor Daniel Loeb’s Third Point LLC has acquired a 5.7% stake in Sotheby’s Auction House, a $156.7 million holding that hints to a potentially intervention on the part of Third Point.   “They [Sotheby’s] haven’t radically rejigged their business in the past 10 years,” says former Christie’s COO Michael Plummer, now a principal of Artvest. “It would appear that these hedge funds have an idea that Sotheby’s could be doing its business differently.”

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