Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
Except for grammarians wondering what happened to the period and spaces between the words, the new name for Barry Diller's e-commerce empire, InterActiveCorp, has gotten little attention except as another bland brand name.
Diller may have been looking for a catch-all name (IAC for short) that ends confusion about the identity of his interactive commerce company, which includes Ticketmaster, Expedia and Home Shopping Network of St. Petersburg.
But the name - the fifth since 1995 for Diller's constantly changing business - recently was named one of the Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week by TheStreet.com columnist George Mannes. The writer staged a contest to find a better one.
Some of the entries: DynaUltraMegaBiz (ticker symbol DUMB), sendbarrydilleryourdisposableincomeintheformofservicecharges.com and BubbleSurvivor Corp. (B.S. Corp. for short). An IAC employee suggested Uncle Barry's House of Pain.
The winner, however, is Phyllis. That's with neither an Inc. or Corp. after it.
"It's simple. It's friendly. It hints at humanity behind the technology," Mannes wrote. "For years we could be reading sentences like this one in ostensibly serious business news stories: "We have high hopes for online dating in European markets,' said Phyllis' Diller."