Treasure hunters and auctioneers to receive access to enhanced suite of
online products and services
NEW YORK – LiveAuctioneers, one of North America’s favorite destinations for fine and decorative arts, antiques and luxury goods, today announced its agreement to join Auction Technology Group’s family of curated online marketplaces and auction-technology solutions.
LiveAuctioneers is delighted to have a new partner with a long history of empowering arts and antiques auctioneers with a suite of online tools, content, and services available to maximize the value of assets auctioneers sell for their consignors. The acquisition by Auction Technology Group (LON:ATG) will more easily enable North American auction houses to access global bidders, accelerating LiveAuctioneers’ continued growth as well as driving the appeal of secondhand items and the circular economy.
The auction industry is going through a structural shift from offline to online and in so doing faces competition from large ecommerce companies selling secondary goods. A key part of ATG’s strategy is to help the auction industry evolve and compete. LiveAuctioneers’ acquisition by ATG enhances the combined Group’s ability to invest in key elements of the end-to-end buying and selling experience, thereby enhancing value for auctioneers, consignors, and bidders alike. It also demonstrates LiveAuctioneers’ commitment to investing in cloud solutions for payments, compliance, and back office that simplify auction-house operations.
Phil Michaelson, CEO of LiveAuctioneers, commented:
“LiveAuctioneers is proud of the relationship it has developed as a trusted partner to auction houses and the value it has delivered to those businesses over the last nineteen years. As part of ATG, LiveAuctioneers’ partners will extend their online marketing to reach ATG’s network of bidders from 150 countries around the world. This, plus deeper investment in the end-to-end buyer experience, will enable auctioneers to foster enhanced competition for, and realize the full value of, the arts and antiques items being auctioned and expand the appeal of live online auctions as the best path by which to buy and sell secondary goods. We are thrilled by what the future holds for treasure hunters and the broader auction community.”
John-Paul Savant, CEO of Auction Technology Group, commented:
“We are excited to announce the proposed acquisition of LiveAuctioneers. It enables ATG to enter the large and fast-growing North American art and antiques segment, further diversifying our business and bringing complementary auctioneers and bidders to our Group. It will strengthen our ability to invest in improving the buying experience, thereby making online auctions more attractive to bidders around the world and helping auctioneers realize higher asset values for their consignors. Our goal is to keep this important industry competitive in an increasingly digital world and, in turn, accelerate the pace of sustainable commerce by making it easier and more attractive to buy and sell through auctions. We are delighted to welcome the strong LiveAuctioneers team, which has a similar culture to ATG, and look forward to working closely together in the future.”
Through the proposed acquisition, thousands of auction houses that have run their auctions on LiveAuctioneers will benefit from the option to list their auctions on ATG’s existing marketplaces and reach a wider audience of bidders. Likewise, ATG’s existing auctioneer clients will have the option to list on LiveAuctioneers, reaching bidders in North America who annually win over one million items on LiveAuctioneers. Further, payment, back-office and marketing solutions can more efficiently be made mutually available to ATG’s and LiveAuctioneers’ partner auction houses.
ATG’s existing arts & antiques marketplaces are thesaleroom.com, which was founded by ATG in 2006, and German fine art & antiques marketplace Lot-tissimo, which was acquired by ATG in 2018. The Group also operates four marketplaces in the industrial & commercial sector.
LiveAuctioneers.com will continue to operate with its headquarters in New York City and be led by CEO Phil Michaelson. The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals.
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About LiveAuctioneers
Founded in 2002, LiveAuctioneers is a leading source in North America for fine and decorative art, antiques and vintage collectibles from thousands of quality auction houses and galleries. The preferred online destination for bidders seeking one-of-a-kind treasures, its platform provides a seamless search, bidding and purchasing experience across the web and via its iOS/Android mobile-bidding apps. Always seeking to create enduring value for buyers and auction houses alike, LiveAuctioneers continues to be a leading innovator with its live-streaming video capabilities, online payments with anti-fraud guarantees, free consignment-sourcing solutions for auctioneers, and a free art and collectibles price-results database that contains millions of entries. To learn more, visit liveauctioneers.com.
About Auction Technology Group
Auction Technology Group plc?(‘ATG’) is the operator of the world’s leading marketplaces and auction services for curated online auctions, seamlessly connecting bidders from around the world to over 2,000 trusted auction houses across three major sectors: industrial & commercial equipment, art & antiques, and consumer surplus & retail returns.
The Group powers six online marketplaces using its proprietary auction platform technology, hosting c. 30,000 live and timed auctions and listing c. 12 million items for sale each year. ATG?has been supporting the auction industry since 1971 when it launched the Antiques Trade Gazette, and the company has offices in the UK, USA and Germany. ATG listed on the Main Market of London Stock Exchange in February 2021.
