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Diller: We're not really deal junkies

PASADENA, Calif.--InterActiveCorp CEO Barry Diller says he ended up with a huge Internet conglomerate, but said that was never really his goal.

"I don't really believe in synergies," Diller said Friday, speaking at Fortune's Brainstorm: Tech conference here.

In the past few years, IAC has already spun off Home Shopping Network, Expedia, LendingTree, and Ticketmaster. He'd eventually like to see the Ask.com search and Citysearch local businesses stand alone as well.

"They are in formation, he said. "They are not sufficiently landed. I'm hopeful that they will be."

Fortune … Read more

IAC's Diller: The iPhone is our crystal ball

NEW YORK--Barry Diller doesn't want to predict the future.

"I'm not a great predictor of these things," the IAC/InterActiveCorp CEO said onstage at his Wednesday keynote for the Advertising 2.0 conference, when interviewer and BusinessWeek reporter Jon Fine asked him when he thought the depressing economic news would finally end. (His personal belief is that it won't get much worse.) "Not that, by the way, anybody's predictions are worth very much to anybody." And he was particularly wary of commenting on the macro economy. "Oh, you certainly don't … Read more

Ask CEO asks to leave

Ask.com said on Tuesday that its chief executive, Jim Safka, is leaving the company after 18 months in the job.

"Jim has decided to move on from Ask.com, following the recent passing of his brother which has led him to re-evaluate his personal and professional priorities. We wish him the very best and thank him for his efforts at Ask.com," Ask spokeswoman Mary Osako said in a statement. "Ask will be led by Scott Garell, who has been promoted to President of Ask Networks, who has already been principally involved every day with the … Read more

IAC in talks to buy Yahoo Personals

This was originally posted at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

InterActiveCorp chief Barry Diller said the company is in talks to buy Yahoo Personals to augment its Match.com business.

The comments were made on IAC's first quarter conference call this week (Techmeme). Here's what Diller said:

We are very interested. We'd love to have Yahoo! Personals and I think there is some initial discussions about that, whether they're going away or not is of course enormously speculative. But I think, Yahoo! has said that it's not an absolute core asset their future and it … Read more

MySpace goes after Yelp with Citysearch partnership

MySpace started off as a hub for indie bands to connect with their fans. Now, with a new partnership with the IAC/InterActiveCorp-owned Citysearch, it's hoping to do the same for the likes of bars, clubs, and restaurants.

Called "MySpace Local," the new section on the News Corp.-owned MySpace will be rooted in existing listings from Citysearch (restricted to major U.S. cities) that are souped up with social features like the ones that you might see on a band or celebrity's MySpace page (photos, videos, comments, and the like). It's launching with just &… Read more

IAC misses fourth-quarter expectations

Update at 8:12 a.m. PST: Analyst comments and stock price added.

InterActiveCorp turned a profit in the fourth quarter but took a 7 percent revenue hit, amid a sharp downturn in its advertising and media business, the company said Tuesday.

Barry Diller's media conglomerate reported revenue of $351 million in the quarter, down from $378.9 million in the same quarter a year earlier. That performance missed Wall Street expectations of $368 million, analyst Imran Khan of J.P. Morgan said in a note.

The company, however, posted a profit of $227.4 million, or $1.57 … Read more

IAC hands over 236.com joint venture

236.com, a comedy site developed as a joint venture between liberal news site The Huffington Post and Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp, will be a joint venture no more. The site will become a Huffington Post subsidiary and is slated to be re-branded as "Huffington Post Comedy." Financial terms were not disclosed.

"After a successful first year as a standalone comedy site we are excited to bring 236 into The Huffington Post as we launch our comedy vertical," Huffington Post co-founder and namesake Arianna Huffington said in a release Tuesday. "We look forward to … Read more

Report: IAC may sell smaller businesses

A report on PaidContent suggests that InterActiveCorp, the media conglomerate owned by Barry Diller, may be looking to sell off some of its smaller ad-supported content properties--effectively, tossing assets overboard to lighten the load during rough financial seas.

According to PaidContent, IAC may be "dissolving" its "programming" group, a set of ad-supported content businesses that includes CollegeHumor, 236.com (a joint venture with The Huffington Post), Very Short List, and the brand-new The Daily Beast. The restructuring reportedly involves the departure of Nick Lehman, chief operating officer of the programming group.

A CollegeHumor executive told CNET … Read more

Citysearch pulls a total overhaul

Citysearch, the online business directory owned by Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp, has gotten a full makeover. It's available now at beta.citysearch.com--there's a more streamlined and Ajax-y interface, but a few important features have been tweaked as well. According to company representatives, this is about a year and a half in the making.

First of all, instead of focusing on a select number of metro areas, Citysearch has expanded to a whopping 75,000 towns and neighborhoods, meaning that you can narrow down your focus to New York's East Village or Los Angeles' Culver … Read more