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.
Related columns:
- InterActive Corp backing the “Queen of Buzz” for a news site TweetBest editor money can buy. At least, that’s the pitch. Internet media mogul Barry Diller is teaming up with former Vanity Fair and New Yorker editor Tina Brown to launch an aggregator news site, reports Radar. In a conversation with the Monday Note last September in Monaco, Diller hinted that he was up to launch [...]...
- Murdoch’s competitive metabolism TweetOn the same subject, Howell Raines, former editor of the New York Times, reminds us of the true drive of the new owner of the Wall Street Journal: competition. In 2002, in a discussion about how to compete against the WSJ, Murdoch gave Raines a piece of advice : “You ought to hit them where [...]...
- How much worth the Druge Report ? TweetIn case you didn’t notice, it’s campaign time in the United Sates. Hence, a website like the leak-fed Drudge Report is heating up. How much is such a site worth by the way ? Portfolio magazine asked to some analysts. Interesting answers. > story here...
