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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 ''internetworking, network of networks'' that consists ...
. 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 i ...
and headquartered in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
. Joey Levin, 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 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, 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, 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 Americ ...
(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 Mad ...
, Sci-Fi Channel, 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 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 cit ...
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 acquired USA Broadcasting (a division of USA Networks including 13 local stations). The next year, Vivendi 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 ...
, followed the next year by an acquisition of Interval International. 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, and in September, the company added discount travel website Hotwire.com to its growing list of acquisitions. In October, IAC agreed to buy French travel site Anyway.com from Transat A.T. for $62.7 million. In 2004 and 2005, IAC continued its growth through acquisition, adding assets including TripAdvisor, ServiceMagic, and Ask Jeeves. 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. Expedia Group, Inc. is an American online travel shopping company for consumer and small business travel. Its websites, which are primarily travel fare aggregators and travel metasearch engines, include Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Vrbo (previousl ...
Additional acquisitions in 2006 included Shoebuy.com, which the company later sold to
Jet Jet, Jets, or The Jet(s) may refer to: Aerospace * Jet aircraft, an aircraft propelled by jet engines ** Jet airliner ** Jet engine ** Jet fuel * Jet Airways, an Indian airline * Wind Jet (ICAO: JET), an Italian airline * Journey to Enceladus a ...
, 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 a ...
. In May 2008, IAC and Ask.com acquired Lexico, the owner of Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com, and Reference.com. 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 and People Media, and launched the production company Notional. IAC would later sell Urbanspoon to Zomato 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 and Gifts.com. On the same day, Diller stepped down as CEO, though he remained as chairman and Match.com CEO Greg Blatt was appointed to succeed him. That same year, IAC acquired dating site Singlesnet and fitness site DailyBurn. 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, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...
'' 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 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. 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 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 ...
. 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. 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. Angi Inc. (formerly ANGI Homeservices Inc.) is an internet services company formed in 2017 by the merger of Angie's List and HomeAdvisor. The company has its earliest roots in American home services website Angie's List, founded in 1995 as an ...

On May 1, 2017, IAC announced it had entered into a definitive agreement with Angie's List to combine HomeAdvisor, a digital marketplace for maintenance and repair services, and Angie's List into a new publicly traded company named
ANGI Homeservices Inc. Angi Inc. (formerly ANGI Homeservices Inc.) is an internet services company formed in 2017 by the merger of Angie's List and HomeAdvisor. The company has its earliest roots in American home services website Angie's List, founded in 1995 as an ...
In March 2021, the company changed its name to Angi. * Angi * CraftJack * Fixd Repair * Handy * HomeAdvisor * HomeStars (Canada) * ImproveNet * Instapro (Italy) * mHelpDesk * MyBuilder (United Kingdom) * MyHammer (Germany, Austria) * Travaux.com (France) * Werkspot (Netherlands)


Dotdash Meredith

* Allrecipes * Better Homes & Gardens * The Balance * 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 cult ...
* Food + Wine * Health * InStyle * Investopedia *
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 ...
* Liquor.com * Martha Stewart Living * MNI Targeted Media * MyDomaine *
People A person ( : 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 proper ...
*
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 (magazine), People''. As of 2009, it is the Spanish-language ...
* Real Simple * Serious Eats *
Shape A shape or figure is a graphical representation of an object or its external boundary, outline, or external surface, as opposed to other properties such as color, texture, or material type. A plane shape or plane figure is constrained to lie on ...
* Simply Recipes * Southern Living * The Spruce * ThoughtCo * Travel + Leisure * TreeHugger * TripSavvy * Verywell


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