William Ruprecht, the long-serving chief executive of Sotheby's, is stepping down, the centuries-old auction house said on Thursday, roughly a year after activist investors including Daniel Loeb began demanding big changes.Sotheby's shares rose about 7 percent in after-hours trading, following news of his departure.Activist investors had called for big changes at Sotheby's including the sale of its headquarters on the upper East Side of Manhattan, and improving its balance sheet.Ruprecht, 58, started in the rug department and rose to the CEO position where he served for 14 years. The company said he is leaving under a "mutual agreement."
Sotheby?s is a global auctioneer of authenticated fine art, decorative art, and jewelry. Shares of BID fell by 1.26% or $-0.5/share to $39.30. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $34.74 and as high as $53.74. On average, 865886 shares of BID exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 767161.
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