IAC Inc. is an American
holding company
A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...
that owns brands across 100 countries, mostly in
media
Media may refer to:
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data
** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...
and
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
. The company is incorporated under
Delaware General Corporation Law
The Delaware General Corporation Law (Title 8, Chapter 1 of the Delaware Code) is the statute of the Delaware Code that governs corporate law in the U.S. state of Delaware. Adopted in 1899, the statute has since seen Delaware become the most im ...
and headquartered in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
Joey Levin
Joey Levin is an American businessman, currently serving as the CEO of IAC. Levin was appointed to the position in June 2015, after previously leading the company's Search & Applications segment. In October 2022, Levin was also appointed as CEO ...
, who previously led the company's search & applications segment, has served as chief executive officer since June 2015.
History
1980s and 1990s
IAC was established in 1986 as Silver King Broadcasting Company, as part of a plan to increase viewership of the
Home Shopping Network (HSN) by purchasing local television stations.
By 1988, Silver King had bought 11 stations for about $220 million.
The company was later renamed as HSN Communications, Inc., and then Silver King Communications, Inc.
In 1992, Silver King was
spun off to HSN shareholders as a separately traded public company. In August 1995,
Barry Diller
Barry Charles Diller (born February 2, 1942) is an American businessman. He is Chairman and Senior Executive of IAC and Expedia Group and founded the Fox Broadcasting Company and USA Broadcasting. Diller was inducted into the Television Hall of ...
acquired control of Silver King, in a deal backed by the company's largest shareholder,
Liberty Media.
Diller, who had led the creation of the
Fox network
The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations an ...
, reportedly hoped to use Silver King's stations as the foundation for a new broadcast network.
The company acquired several assets in the late 1990s. In December 1996, Silver King acquired an 80% stake in HSN for $1.3 billion in stock, and changed its own name to HSN, Inc. At the same time, the company acquired
Savoy Pictures
Savoy Pictures Entertainment, Inc. was an American independent motion picture company in operation from 1992 to 1997. Among Savoy Pictures' noteworthy feature films were ''A Bronx Tale'', '' No Escape'', ''Last of the Dogmen'' and ''Serial Mom''. ...
, a failed film studio that owned four Fox affiliate stations through
SF Broadcasting
SF Broadcasting was an American media company that owned and operated four television stations; the company operated from its founding March 1994, four months before its purchased stations owned by Burnham Broadcasting, until its merger with Sil ...
, for $210 million in stock.
HSN purchased a controlling stake in
Ticketmaster Group in July 1997, and then acquired the rest of the company in June 1998. In February 1998, it acquired the television assets of
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
(including
USA Network
USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madison ...
,
Sci-Fi Channel
Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. Launc ...
, and Universal Television's domestic production and distribution arms) for $4.1 billion.
The company's name was changed to USA Networks, Inc. at this point.
Continuing its acquisition strategy, the company acquired the
Hotel Reservations Network
Hotels.com is a website for booking hotel rooms online and by telephone. The company has 85 websites in 34 languages, and lists over 325,000 hotels in approximately 19,000 locations. Its inventory includes hotels and B&Bs, and some condos and oth ...
in May 1999 for $149 million.
USA Networks merged the online division of Ticketmaster with city guide website
CitySearch
Citysearch is an online city guide that provides information about businesses in the categories of dining, entertainment, retail, travel, and professional services in cities throughout the United States. Visitors to each of Citysearch's local city ...
in September 1998, establishing a new company that went public as Ticketmaster Online–CitySearch (TMCS). USA then sold Ticketmaster proper to TMCS in 2001, retaining a 61 percent share in the combined company, which became known as simply Ticketmaster. USA brought Ticketmaster back under full ownership in 2003, purchasing all outstanding shares.
2000s
In the early 2000s, USA Networks began divesting itself of its traditional television broadcasting and production units. In May 2001,
Univision Communications
TelevisaUnivision (formerly known as Univision Communications) is a Mexican-American media company headquartered in New York and Mexico City, which owns the American Spanish language broadcast network Univision. 45% of the company is held by the ...
acquired
USA Broadcasting
USA Broadcasting was an United States of America, American television broadcasting company owned by the veteran entertainment industry executive Barry Diller. This company was the over-the-air broadcasting arm of USA Networks. Before founding US ...
(a division of USA Networks including 13 local stations). The next year,
Vivendi
Vivendi SE is a French mass media holding company headquartered in Paris. Widely known as the owner of Gameloft, Groupe Canal+, Havas, Editis, Prisma Media, Vivendi Village and Dailymotion, the company has activities in television, film, video ...
bought the rest of USA's broadcast entertainment businesses, including the USA Network and Sci-Fi Channel. This led to the creation of a new company named Vivendi Universal Entertainment, led by Diller. Throughout this transition, USA Networks continued to build up its online portfolio. In July 2001, the company entered the online travel business with its acquisition of
Expedia
Expedia Inc. is an online travel agency owned by Expedia Group, an American online travel shopping company based in Seattle. The website and mobile app can be used to book airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, cruise ships, and vacat ...
, followed the next year by an acquisition of
Interval International
ILG, Inc. is an American timeshare company and a subsidiary of Marriott Vacations Worldwide. It was formerly a subsidiary of the corporation IAC. ILG is the parent company of Interval International, a provider of membership and leisure service ...
.
Following the shift in focus to online assets, the company changed its name to USA Interactive (USAI) in May 2002; InterActiveCorp in June 2003; and finally to IAC/InterActiveCorp in July 2004.
In August 2003, IAC acquired the online mortgage comparison site
LendingTree
LendingTree is an online lending marketplace headquartered in Charlotte, NC. The business platform allows potential borrowers to connect with multiple loan operators to find optimal terms for loans, credit cards, deposit accounts, insurance, et ...
, and in September, the company added discount travel website
Hotwire.com
Hotwire is a travel website that offers airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, and vacation packages. It operates by selling off unsold travel inventory at discounted prices. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Hotwire, Inc. is ...
to its growing list of acquisitions. In October, IAC agreed to buy French travel site Anyway.com from
Transat A.T.
Transat A.T. Inc. is an international, vertically integrated tour operator with nearly 20 business units in 8 countries. The company is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
In May 2021, Jean-Marc Eustache, then CEO and one of the principal ...
for $62.7 million.
In 2004 and 2005, IAC continued its growth through acquisition, adding assets including
TripAdvisor,
ServiceMagic
HomeAdvisor is a Online marketplace, digital marketplace formerly known as ServiceMagic. It connects homeowners with local service professionals to carry out home improvement, maintenance and remodeling projects.
HomeAdvisor is headquartered in ...
, and
Ask Jeeves
Ask.com (originally known as Ask Jeeves) is a question answering–focused e-business founded in 1996 by Garrett Gruener and David Warthen in Berkeley, California.
The original software was implemented by Gary Chevsky, from his own design. Wart ...
. It also launched Gifts.com during this period. In August 2005, the company bundled together its travel-related sites and spun them off as a new public company,
Expedia, Inc. Additional acquisitions in 2006 included Shoebuy.com, which the company later sold to
Jet, and Connected Ventures including
CollegeHumor
CollegeHumor is an Internet comedy company based in Los Angeles. Aside from producing content for release on YouTube, it was also a former humor website owned by InterActiveCorp ( IAC) until January 2020, when IAC withdrew funding and the websi ...
and
Vimeo
Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software as ...
.
In May 2008, IAC and Ask.com acquired Lexico, the owner of
Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com is an online dictionary whose domain was first registered on May 14, 1995. The primary content on Dictionary.com is a proprietary dictionary based on ''Random House Unabridged Dictionary'', with editors for the site providing new ...
, Thesaurus.com, and
Reference.com
Reference.com is an online encyclopedia that organizes content that uses a question-and-answer format. Articles are organized into hierarchical categories.
Before IAC (company), IAC restructured the site following an acquisition in 2008, Refer ...
. In August 2008, IAC spun off several of its businesses, including: Tree.com (formerly LendingTree), the Home Shopping Network, Ticketmaster, and Interval International.
In 2009, IAC acquired
Urbanspoon
Urbanspoon was a restaurant information and recommendation service founded in 2006 by former Jobster employees that offered its services in North America and parts of English-speaking Australasia and Europe. In January 2015, Zomato, an India-ba ...
and People Media, and launched the production company Notional. IAC would later sell Urbanspoon to
Zomato
Zomato () is an Indian multinational restaurant aggregator and food delivery company founded by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah in 2008. Zomato provides information, menus and user-reviews of restaurants as well as food delivery options fro ...
in 2015.
2010s
IAC's largest shareholder, Liberty Media, exited the company in 2010, following a protracted dispute over the 2008 spinoffs.
Liberty traded its IAC stock for $220 million in cash, plus ownership of
Evite
Evite is a social-planning website for creating, sending, and managing online invitations. The website offers digital invitations with RSVP tracking. They also offer greeting cards, announcements, eGift cards, and party planning ideas.
Evite w ...
and Gifts.com.
On the same day, Diller stepped down as CEO, though he remained as chairman and
Match.com
Match is an online dating service with web sites serving over 50 countries in twelve languages. Its headquarters are in Dallas, Texas. The company has offices in Dallas, West Hollywood, San Francisco, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, and Beijing. Match is ...
CEO Greg Blatt was appointed to succeed him.
That same year, IAC acquired dating site Singlesnet
and fitness site
DailyBurn
Daily Burn is a health and fitness company with a membership of approximately 2.5 million that provides workout and nutrition programs on a variety of web, mobile, and TV apps. Daily Burn streaming workout videos are led by master trainers and p ...
.
In January 2013, IAC acquired online tutoring firm
Tutor.com. On August 3, 2013, IAC sold ''
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...
'' to the ''
International Business Times
The ''International Business Times'' is an American online news publication that publishes five national editions in four languages. The publication, sometimes called ''IBTimes'' or ''IBT'', offers news, opinion and editorial commentary on busi ...
'' on undisclosed terms. On December 22, 2013, IAC fired their Director of Corporate Communications, Justine Sacco after an AIDS joke she posted to Twitter
went viral
Viral phenomena or viral sensation are objects or patterns that are able to replicate themselves or convert other objects into copies of themselves when these objects are exposed to them. Analogous to the way in which viruses propagate, the ter ...
,
being re-tweeted and scorned around the world. The incident became a
byword for the need for people to be cautious about what they post on social media.
In 2014, IAC acquired
ASKfm
ASKfm (Ask.fm until 14 January 2016) is a question and answer network launched in June 2010 as a competitor to Formspring. After registration, the user fills out his profile and can ask questions (anonymously or openly), reply on their profile, ...
for an undisclosed sum.
November 2015, IAC and Match Group announced the closing of Match Group's previously announced initial public offering.
In May 2017, HomeAdvisor combined with Angie's List, forming the new publicly traded company ANGI Homeservices Inc. The company made its stock market debut in October 2017. In October 2018, the ANGI made its first acquisition of on-demand platform Handy.
In July 2019, IAC made its largest investment ever in the world's largest peer-to-peer car sharing marketplace, Turo. Later that year, IAC acquired Care.com. In December 2019, IAC and Match Group entered into an agreement providing for the full separation of Match Group from the remaining businesses of IAC.
2020s
In January 2020, IAC withdrew its financial backing for
CollegeHumor
CollegeHumor is an Internet comedy company based in Los Angeles. Aside from producing content for release on YouTube, it was also a former humor website owned by InterActiveCorp ( IAC) until January 2020, when IAC withdrew funding and the websi ...
and its sister websites and sold the websites to Chief Creative Officer
Sam Reich
Sam Reich ( ; born July 22, 1984) is an American CEO, businessman, and game show host. He is best known for his work with CollegeHumor (which as of 2020, he majority owns), the TV show ''Adam Ruins Everything'', as well as hosting the web series ...
. As a result of the restructuring, more than 100 employees of CollegeHumor were laid off. In February, IAC completed its $500 million acquisition of Care.com.
In July 2020, IAC and
Match Group
Match Group, Inc. is an American internet and technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It owns and operates the largest global portfolio of popular online dating services including Tinder, Match.com, Meetic, OkCupid, Hinge, PlentyOfFi ...
announced the successful completion of the separation of Match Group from the remaining businesses of IAC. As a result of the separation, Match Group's dual class voting structure was eliminated and the interest in Match Group formerly held by IAC is now held directly by IAC's shareholders. As of the separation, "new" IAC trades under the symbol "IAC" and "new" Match Group under the symbol "MTCH."
In August 2020, IAC announced it had invested a 12% stake in
MGM Resorts International
MGM Resorts International is an American global hospitality and entertainment company operating destination resorts in Las Vegas, Massachusetts, Detroit, Mississippi, Maryland, and New Jersey, including Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, and Pa ...
.
In May 2021, IAC completed the spin-off of Vimeo, the 11th company to be spun-off from IAC. Vimeo trades on Nasdaq under the symbol "VMEO".
In October 2021, IAC announced the acquisition of
Meredith Corporation
Meredith Corporation was an American media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa, that owned magazines, television stations, websites, and radio stations. Its publications had a readership of more than 120 million and paid circulation of more ...
's National Media Group for $2.7 billion. The deal closed December 1, 2021, and the acquired Meredith assets merged with IAC subsidiary Dotdash, forming a new entity called
Dotdash Meredith
Dotdash Meredith (formerly About.com) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, l ...
.
In August 2022, IAC officially changed its legal entity (IAC/InterActiveCorp) to reflect what it's actually called: IAC Inc. In October, IAC agreed to sell its workforce-as-a-service platform Bluecrew to EmployBridge with IAC remaining a minority shareholder in Bluecrew's business.
Businesses
IAC's businesses are categorized into distinct segments for the purposes of financial reporting. Those segments are labelled by the company as Angi Inc., Dotdash Meredith, Search, and Emerging and Other. Each business listed may have multiple brands connected to it.
Angi Inc.
On May 1, 2017, IAC announced it had entered into a definitive agreement with
Angie's List
Angi (formerly Angie's List) is an American home services website owned by Angi Inc., a publicly-traded subsidiary of IAC. Founded in 1995 by Angie Hicks and William S. Oesterle, it allows users to search for contractors to provide paid home ...
to combine
HomeAdvisor
HomeAdvisor is a digital marketplace formerly known as ServiceMagic. It connects homeowners with local service professionals to carry out home improvement, maintenance and remodeling projects.
HomeAdvisor is headquartered in Denver, Colorado a ...
, a digital marketplace for maintenance and repair services, and Angie's List into a new publicly traded company named
ANGI Homeservices Inc. In March 2021, the company changed its name to Angi.
*
Angi
Angi (formerly Angie's List) is an American home services website owned by Angi Inc., a publicly-traded subsidiary of IAC. Founded in 1995 by Angie Hicks and William S. Oesterle, it allows users to search for contractors to provide paid hom ...
* CraftJack
* Fixd Repair
*
Handy
*
HomeAdvisor
HomeAdvisor is a digital marketplace formerly known as ServiceMagic. It connects homeowners with local service professionals to carry out home improvement, maintenance and remodeling projects.
HomeAdvisor is headquartered in Denver, Colorado a ...
*
HomeStars (Canada)
* ImproveNet
* Instapro (Italy)
* mHelpDesk
* MyBuilder (United Kingdom)
* MyHammer (Germany, Austria)
* Travaux.com (France)
* Werkspot (Netherlands)
Dotdash Meredith
Dotdash Meredith (formerly About.com) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, l ...
* Allrecipes
* Better Homes & Gardens
*
The Balance
''The Balance'' is the third studio album by Welsh band Catfish and the Bottlemen. It was released on 26 April 2019 through Island Records and Capitol Records. It was preceded by the lead single "Longshot", which reached number 25 on the UK Sing ...
*
Brides
A bride is a woman who is about to be married or who is newlywed.
When marrying, the bride's future spouse, (if male) is usually referred to as the ''bridegroom'' or just ''groom''. In Western culture, a bride may be attended by a maid, brides ...
* Byrdie
*
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
* Food + Wine
* Health
* InStyle
*
Investopedia
Investopedia is a financial media website headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1999, Investopedia provides investment dictionaries, advice, reviews, ratings, and comparisons of financial products such as securities accounts. Investopedia ha ...
*
Lifewire
Lifewire is a technology information and advice website. The website's owner is Dotdash Meredith, originally About.com, which launched Lifewire in 2016 as one of its spin-off vertical sites.
As of April 2022, it had a global website ranking of 1 ...
* Liquor.com
* Martha Stewart Living
* MNI Targeted Media
* MyDomaine
*
People
A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...
*
People en Español
''People en Español'' is a Spanish-language American magazine published by Dotdash Meredith that debuted in 1996, originally as the Spanish-language edition of its publication ''People''. As of 2009, it is the Spanish-language magazine with the l ...
* Real Simple
*
Serious Eats
Serious Eats is a website and blog focused on food enthusiasts, created by food critic and author Ed Levine. A Serious Eats book was published by Levine in 2011. Serious Eats was acquired by Fexy Media in 2015 and then by Dotdash in late 2020.
...
*
Shape
A shape or figure is a graphics, graphical representation of an object or its external boundary, outline, or external Surface (mathematics), surface, as opposed to other properties such as color, Surface texture, texture, or material type.
A pl ...
*
Simply Recipes
Simply Recipes is a cooking blog founded by Elise Bauer. Bauer began writing the blog in 2003 to record her family recipes. Simply Recipes was acquired by Fexy Media in 2016, and later by Dotdash in 2020
Content
Bauer writes about recipes for po ...
* Southern Living
* The Spruce
* ThoughtCo
* Travel + Leisure
*
TreeHugger
''TreeHugger'' is a sustainability website that reports on news, and other subjects like eco-friendly design, homes, and gardens. It was rated the top sustainability blog of 2007 by Nielsen Netratings,
and was included in Time Magazine's 2009 ...
* TripSavvy
*
Verywell
Verywell is a website providing health and wellness information by health professionals. It was launched on 26 April 2016 as a media property of About.com (now Dotdash Meredith) and its first standalone brand. Its content is created by 120 health ...
Search
*
Ask Media Group
* Ask Applications
* Excite.com
Other
* Bluecrew
*
Care.com
* ''
The Daily Beast
''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008.
It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...
''
* Mosaic Group
* Newco
* Vivian Health
* IAC Films
See also
*
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Iac
American companies established in 1995
Companies listed on the Nasdaq
Conglomerate companies established in 1995
Conglomerate companies of the United States
Film production companies of the United States
Holding companies based in New York City
Holding companies established in 1995
Online mass media companies of the United States
Publicly traded companies based in New York City