Diller's spinoff starts trading Tuesday

By Times Staff Writer
Published August 8, 2005

---

Was Barry Diller right in concluding last year that parts of his e-commerce empire are worth more than Wall Street values the whole enchilada? Investors will get a better idea Tuesday when Diller's Expedia Inc. begins trading on its own.

Diller spent the past seven months splitting the IAC travel units off from his IAC/InterActiveCorp and recasting IAC's mission with the acquisition of the Ask Jeeves Inc. search engine.

Analysts said investors were skittish about the complicated structure of Diller's wheeling and dealing. He had made more more than 100 acquisitions over 10 years. The spinoff puts Expedia, Hotels.com and Hotwire.com in one company. St. Petersburg-based HSN, Ticketmaster, Ask Jeeves, Citysearch, Interval International, Match.com and a Florida telemarketing operation will remain part of IAC. Diller, who oversaw a $1-billion stock repurchase of IAC shares, will have controlling interest in both companies. IAC has $1.8-billion in cash.

IAC closed at $25.37 Friday. We'll see what it adds up to as two separate stocks come Tuesday.