Pendulum swing. Until recently, Barry Diller, founder and chairman of InterActiveCorp (IAC) was seen as the epitome of the digital media mogul, having accumulated something like 60 specialized brands, from Ask.com to a site called College Humor. Disparity was the trademark, and it was a probably Diller biggest mistake. Thirteen years into the IAC adventure, at the age of 66, he is up to a major turnaround. In an excellent profile published by Condé Nast Portfolio Magazine, he openly admits his error, explaining the dismantling of its assemblage (once valued at $19bn). “[Diller] now realizes that he was wrong from the start, writes Portfolio. Diller says he’s utterly committed to the idea of an anticonglomerate, blowing up IAC and leaving the company’s disparate parts to operate on their own. “We decided, ‘Enough of this integrated-conglomerate pretension.’ We were kidding ourselves if we thought we could pull off an integrated conglomerate that acts like G.E. or P&G in anything less than 10, 20, or 30 years”. Time to rely on the traditional business plan rather than serendipity-driven acquisition frenzy.
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