iac

Silicon Alley Insider is reporting that there could be layoffs at Ask.com and that IAC is thinking about dumping the Teoma search engine in favor of Google.

But a person very familiar with the matter told CNET News.com that Ask.com will stick with Teoma.

Ask.com spokesman Nicholas Graham declined to comment on the potential for layoffs.

Ask.com has undergone so many makeovers it's hard to keep track. A site redesign last year, along with management changes in the past few years, has failed to significantly change its market share.

This post was updated at 11:24 AM on Friday, Feb. 15 to clarify AOL's use of Citysearch ad listings.

InterActiveCorp chair Barry Diller recently went on the record saying that he wouldn't buy AOL unless somebody handed it to him for free. But that doesn't rule out content partnerships: AOL announced Thursday that it has formed a partnership with Citysearch, the IAC-owned business directory.

Citysearch content, including reviews, photos, editorial content, and videos, will be featured on a number of AOL sites like AOL CityGuide, AOL Local Search, and MapQuest. In return, AOL will display Citysearch'… Read more

It's no secret that InterActiveCorp is facing a corporate hurricane. But CEO Barry Diller's plan to split the company in five parts might not calm the waters.

In the fall, the sprawling new media conglomerate announced a plan to spin off many of its brands into a total of five publicly traded companies, focusing its core business on ad-supported media, in order to revive investor confidence. It needs that revival: on Wednesday morning, the company posted its 2007 fourth-quarter earnings, reporting a net loss of $369.9 million as revenues rose eight percent to $1.86 billion.

IAC … Read more

In what may shape up to be one of New York media's most colorful feuds of 2008, IAC/InterActiveCorp Chief Executive Barry Diller and one of its most high-profile stockholders, Liberty Media head John Malone, are at each other's throats Mean Girls-style. And they've brought both their legal and PR teams along for backup.

A vicious press release from IAC on Tuesday morning said that Liberty "has gone off the deep end" in its attempt to control the company's board and oust Diller from his role, and that Malone's cable giant "will … Read more

Liberty Media, which owns a majority voting stake in IAC, has filed a court action to remove Barry Diller and others from the IAC board and replace them with Liberty nominees, according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required).

The moves come a week after Liberty and IAC sued each other over IAC's plans to spin off a majority of its business units into new companies. Under the restructuring, announced in November, search site Ask.com and its advertising business will remain inside IAC, while LendingTree, Ticketmaster, and others are spun off.

Barry Diller's InterActiveCorp has acquired a significant minority stake in The HealthCentral Network. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

HealthCentral, which boasts 7.7 million viewers, is a collection of more than 30 sites on healthy living and specific conditions where patients and experts share information.

Diller and Peter Horan, chief executive of IAC's media and advertising sector, will serve on HealthCentral's Board.

IAC invested in Medem, a suite of Web-based physician-patient communication services last year, and its Ask search engine has partnered with Healthline Networks.

IAC isn't the only big Internet company jumping … Read more

Several sources close to InterActiveCorp (IAC) have told CNET News.com that, contrary to rumors, the media conglomerate is not purchasing youth-oriented social-networking site MyYearbook. The rumor was originally reported by Valleywag on Wednesday.

The misconception arose, one source said, because MyYearbook was one of multiple start-ups that were invited to do "mock pitches" to IAC chairman and CEO Barry Diller as part of a session at this week's exclusive Quadrangle conference (hosted by the eponymous private equity firm) at the Pierre Hotel in Manhattan. Essentially, it was like moot court for entrepreneurs.

MyYearbook was founded by … Read more

This post was updated at 9:18 a.m. PST.

InterActiveCorp CEO Barry Diller was remarkably candid in his acknowledgment Monday that his media conglomerate will be splitting up into five publicly traded companies because it's simply spread itself too thin.

"We've been a complex enterprise almost from the very beginning 12 years ago, with hundreds of transactions over those years," Diller said in the company's announcement. "And while we've created a lot of value; I've always believed (that) our complexity and many mouthfuls of sentences to explain who we are and … Read more

BustedTees, the Web site responsible for that "Prose before Hos" t-shirt that you wore to your English 101 final exam, has announced a Facebook Platform application that offers to split cash revenue with users willing to install it.

The application has soft-launched and is set to launch formally in a few days.

The model here is similar to traditional "affiliate programs" for advertising on Web sites and blogs--and indeed, it's essentially a "Facebookified" version of BustedTees' existing affiliate program. Pimp them on your Facebook profile, and you'll get a cut of the … Read more