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Posts Tagged “
Barry Diller
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the olds
kevin rose
The founder of Digg.com talks about sitting down with the heads of News Corp. and IAC in an interview on Big Think. "When I sat down with [Murdoch] it was a hand-holding process," says Kevin Rose, whose site is reportedly now being courted by Google. "When I sat down with Barry Diller, he was telling me about my business...it blew my mind." Rose is also amazed by Al Gore. More »
Digg Founder Says Rupert Murdoch Is An Old, Barry Diller Is Savvy
The founder of Digg.com talks about sitting down with the heads of News Corp. and IAC in an interview on Big Think. "When I sat down with [Murdoch] it was a hand-holding process," says Kevin Rose, whose site is reportedly now being courted by Google. "When I sat down with Barry Diller, he was telling me about my business...it blew my mind." Rose is also amazed by Al Gore. More »
photo album
When They Were Young
Bob Colacello's party photographs from the 1970s—when the reporter edited Andy Warhol's Interview magazine and chronicled New York's social scene—are strangely poignant. To think that immortal Chelsea boy Calvin Klein (top) was once so debonair! Grizzled mogul Barry Diller (pictured with Diane von Furstenberg then and now) had such a seductively wicked smile. It's hard to imagine Vogue's André Leon Talley (pictured next to Studio 54's Steve Rubell and Warhol) as anything other than the imposing African cardinal he plays on the red carpet. And then one remembers that today's socialites will one day appear equally ludicrous to the generation that comes after them, evidence that they were ever young buried in Patrick McMullan's photo database. More »
nepotism
Diller's Stepson May Lose His Front-Row Lakers Seats
There's one person apart from shareholder John Malone who stands to lose when IAC is broken up: Alex von Furstenberg, adopted son of the internet conglomerate's boss, Barry Diller. The shaved-headed socialite, Diane von Furstenberg's son by her first gay husband, will still inherit a large part of his adoring stepfather's fortune. But after IAC is divided into five, Alex von Furstenberg may have trouble securing the front-row seats at Lakers games that are such a mark of social status in Los Angeles, where von Furstenberg has lived since 2005. He's been relying on Diller's office to cadge tickets to the bastketball games from Ticketmaster, the online ticketing service which IAC is spinning off. The IAC boss will remain chairman of Ticketmaster after the split, but one peons still hopes Diller and his relatives will no longer be able to use the service as a personal favor bank. More »
barry diller
Gay Mogul's 'Stuff-Less' Marriage
IAC's Barry Diller has just explained—to the audience at the Wall Street Journal's D Conference—the breakdown of his relationship with the internet conglomerate's biggest shareholder, evil John Malone's Liberty Media. Paid Content was taking notes. Diller's metaphor? "Partnerships are marriages without the stuff." Oops, Freudian slip! More »
iac
Humble Diller Not That Humble
Having escaped John Malone's hook, former studio boss and internet tycoon Barry Diller is attempting to reinvent himself, says Portfolio's Duff McDonald. The new Diller trademark? Humility. "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." Diller is indeed cutting internet conglomerate IAC down to a more manageable rump of web sites such as Ask, Citysearch and Evite. But the 65-year-old tycoon hasn't entirely lost his trademark vindictiveness. Doug Lebda—who sold Diller online mortgage search engine Lending Tree for $726m before the real-estate bubble burst—was prepared to buy the business back at a discount. Why hasn't that happened? "No one is allowed to school Diller twice," says a mogul watcher.
IAC's Summer Explosion
"IAC/InterActiveCorp boss Barry Diller is pushing ahead with plans to break up his company into five separate businesses, and downplaying talk about a possible asset swap with Liberty Media...Diller said he hopes to complete the spin-offs by August." [Post]
Barry Diller, John Malone May Kiss And Make Up
"Fresh off his legal victory over Liberty Media, IAC/InterActiveCorp boss Barry Diller is expected to meet with his board this week to restart the process of breaking up his company into five separate pieces, The Post has learned. At the same time, sources said Diller and Liberty Media Chairman John Malone are continuing to talk about a deal that would trade one or more of IAC's assets for Liberty's ownership stake in IAC." [Post]
refugees
Tina Brown "Still Having Trouble Getting Her Email"
The picture of the grandes dames of New York publishing, fighting for places aboard the internet lifeboats, is a source of endless amusement—not least because they bring their feuds with them. More »
moguls
Barry Diller Chooses Grandpa Font
So internet mogul Barry Diller won the struggle for control of IAC, the ungainly conglomerate which owns sites such as Ticketmaster and College Humor. Here's his celebratory announcement to employees. It's rather clunkier than one expects of the highly quotable IAC boss. Presumably Diller means, in the last line, that employees can have more confidence in the future; wishing IAC colleagues instead more surefootedness implies that IAC's missteps were somehow their fault. And some graphically-aware assistant really should help the 66-year-old former studio boss change his default email font.
debunk
Did College Humor Just Shake Off Adult Supervision?
Say farewell to Mo Koyfman, the IAC executive dropped in to monitor the crazy kids when Barry Diller's internet conglomerate acquired College Humor. He's resigned from his position as chief operating officer of the dorky web site. There's nothing particularly amusing about the news, except for the assumption that Koyfman represented adult supervision. Founders Josh Abramson and Ricky Van Veen were always substantially more straight-laced than their reputation for rampant loft parties would indicate; while 30-year-old wannabe modelizer Koyfman, however engaging, is as much a grown-up as Barry Diller is an internet guru.
the rich
Leaked Doc Shows How Barry Diller Protected Himself Against IAC's Tumble
Wikileaks obtained a JP Morgan presentation put together for media mogul Barry Diller, showing Diller how to protect his personal wealth against any, erm, hypothetical future declines in the value of his internet conglomerate IAC. The techniques outlined in the 31-page document (PDF) neatly circumvent restrictions on insider trading but are really only useful for insiders who anticipate their company shares will decline, since stock price increases are limited along with declines. For example, here was the plan presented to Diller in February 2007: More »
rumormonger
An Untimely Embarrassment For Barry Diller
Could Barry Diller's Fi Life, a misconceived financial portal for young investors, already be in trouble? Several journalists who joined the outfit, a joint venture between Diller's IAC and Dow Jones, are said to be scrambling for new jobs. (Email if you have details.) The project involved Dave Kansas, a veteran of online financial news with a jinx; partnerships between big media conglomerates usually work better as cocktail party fantasy than they do as actual businesses; and Rupert Murdoch, who acquired Dow Jones last year, prefers full control. So Fi Life was obviously doomed. But one would have thought Diller, who's in a Delaware court fighting for control of his internet conglomerate, would want to arrange a more elegant unwinding.
quote of the day
Malone: "The hook is set. It is our company... Barry ain't going to be able to spit the hook."
Diller: "I sail. I don't fish. I got the point."
Barry Diller Gets The Point
The scene: two billionaires, former friends, are feuding over an internet conglomerate, IAC. John Malone's initial salvo comes in quotes given by the corporate assassin to the Wall Street Journal. Barry Diller, IAC's chairman, described his reaction in this week's court struggle for control of the sprawling internet company.Malone: "The hook is set. It is our company... Barry ain't going to be able to spit the hook."
Diller: "I sail. I don't fish. I got the point."
Barry Diller Does Not Appreciate Your Speaking Badly Of IAC
Barry Diller is still pissed at Greg Maffei, the Liberty Media executive who broke up his close relationship with Liberty Chairman John Malone. Here is how Diller began testimony in his court battle to retain control of IAC: "Mr. Maffei, 47 years old, was an 'irresponsible executive,' Mr. Diller testified in Delaware Chancery Court. 'For over a year and a half, he has spoken badly about our businesses and our managers,' said Mr. Diller, who is scheduled to continue his testimony today." [WSJ]
Barry Diller is still pissed at Greg Maffei, the Liberty Media executive who broke up his close relationship with Liberty Chairman John Malone. Here is how Diller began testimony in his court battle to retain control of IAC: "Mr. Maffei, 47 years old, was an 'irresponsible executive,' Mr. Diller testified in Delaware Chancery Court. 'For over a year and a half, he has spoken badly about our businesses and our managers,' said Mr. Diller, who is scheduled to continue his testimony today." [WSJ]
alex von furstenberg
Diller's Dynasty
Here's more evidence that Barry Diller sees the family of his companion, Diane von Furstenberg, as the dynasty the gay media mogul would never have otherwise had. The court battle over control of Diller's IAC has turned up an email in which Diller discussed a plan to seize voting control of the internet conglomerate. The recipient: not a business advisor, but sexy baldie Alex von Furstenberg, son of the fashion designer and likely heir to Diller's fortune.
To Paraphrase Clausewitz
For IAC's Barry Diller and his backer John Malone, the two billionaires wrestling for control of the internet conglomerate this week, a lawsuit is merely the continuation of negotiation by other means. A witness notes that the moguls are continuing settlement talks even as they trash each other in a Delaware court.
For IAC's Barry Diller and his backer John Malone, the two billionaires wrestling for control of the internet conglomerate this week, a lawsuit is merely the continuation of negotiation by other means. A witness notes that the moguls are continuing settlement talks even as they trash each other in a Delaware court.
iac
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