InterActiveCorp (IAC), parent company of Ask.com, Bloglines, Evite, and dozens of other popular Web sites, has decided to split itself into five separate, publicly traded companies. The hotter of IAC’s properties (it’s so-called “media & advertising” and “emerging businesses” groups) will remain under the IAC brand, while slower growth units HSN, Ticketmaster, Interval International, and LendingTree will become separate companies.
As we noted in IAC’s recent earnings report, some of the company’s properties are performing quite well, growing at 40 percent over last year; these are the ones that will remain under the IAC brand. However, Home Shopping Network, its biggest unit by revenue, has basically flat-lined, which hurt the company’s overall results.
This is clearly a “sum of the parts worth more than the whole” move by IAC that is being welcomed by investors this morning, with shares of the company trading up more than 8 percent on the NASDAQ.
IAC also announced that it has come to terms on a deal with Google for advertising, worth an estimated $3.5 billion over five years. There had previously been speculation that the deal might not happen.
Here’s the specifics of how IAC will be splitting up, from the company’s press release:
IAC will include: Ask.com, Bloglines, Citysearch, CursorMania, IAC Advertising Solutions, Evite, Excite, InsiderPages, iWon, My Fun Cards, My Way, Popular Screensavers, Smiley Central, Webfetti, Zwinky, Match.com, ServiceMagic, Shoebuy.com, Entertainment Publications, ReserveAmerica, Black Web Enterprises, BustedTees, CollegeHumor, GarageGames, Gifts.com, Green.com, InstantAction, Primal Ventures, Pronto, Very Short List, Vimeo and 23/6, Active.com, Brightcove, FiLife, Medem, MerchantCircle, OpenTable, Points.com and SHOP Channel.
HSN: The Home Shopping Network, which includes HSN TV, hsn.com, and the Cornerstone Brands, Inc. portfolio of catalogs, web sites and retail locations.
Ticketmaster will include: Admission.com, Biletix, Billetnet, BillettService, Cottonblend, Echomusic, Kartenhaus.de, Lippupalvelu, LiveDaily, TicketService, Tick Tack Ticket, TicketWeb and Ticnet.se, as well as Ticketmaster’s current investments in Frontline and iLike.
Interval International will include: CondoDirect, Resort Quest Hawaii and VacationSource.com;
LendingTree will include: RealEstate.com, Domania, GetSmart, Home Loan Center and iNest.
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