Sotheby's (NYSE:BID)

Sotheby's, incorporated on March 30, 2006, is a global art business company. The Company is engaged in offering its clients opportunities to connect with and transact in a range of objects. The Company offers a range of art-related services, including the brokerage of private art sales, private jewelry sales through Sotheby's Diamonds, private selling exhibitions at its galleries, art-related financing, and art advisory services, as well as retail wine locations in New York and Hong Kong. The Company operates through two segments: Agency and Finance. The Agency segment matches buyers and sellers of authenticated fine art, decorative art, jewelry, wine and collectibles (collectively, art or works of art or artwork or property) through the auction or private sale process. Its Agency segment activities also include the sale of artworks that are principally acquired incidental to the auction process and the activities of RM Sotheby's, an equity investee that operates as an auction house for investment-quality automobiles. The Finance segment earns interest income through art-related financing activities by making loans that are secured by works of art. The Company's advisory services are classified within All Other segment, along with its retail wine business, brand licensing activities, the activities of Acquavella Modern Art (AMA), an equity investee, and sales of the remaining inventory of Noortman Master Paintings, an art dealer. ...