IAC/InterActive Corp. (NASDAQ: IACI) Chief Executive Barry Diller is one CEO who cannot be tamed by his corporate public relations staff or lawyers. He says what he wants when he wants, seeming not to care much for the potential ramifications.Take his fight with fellow tycoon John Malone of Liberty Media Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: LINTA) over Diller's plan to split up his conglomerate that's been cobbled together through dozens of acquisitions of seemingly disparate companies. Liberty also happens to own majority stake in IAC. However, a long-standing agreement with Diller allows the mogul to control it through a proxy agreement. Well, at least that was the case until recently.
Liberty has asked a Delaware Chancery Court to remove Diller from IAC's board [subscription required] along with other members, and to have several of Liberty's nominees put in their place. The company also asked for Diller to be removed from BDTV, which the Wall Street Journal described as "a little-known entity through which Liberty owns most of its stake in IAC."
Now, most CEOs would prefer not to comment on pending litigation or say something bland like they hope the dispute can be resolved amicably. That's not the Diller way.
"After reading this new salvo, I am beginning to think these people are insane," the Journal quoted a statement from Diller. "Everything they cite is hogwash. First of all, we have never asked the board to take action on any specific proposal high, low or no-vote. What we have done, which we thought was the responsible thing to do given this conflict, is to go to the Delaware court and ask them to tell us what rights IAC has or doesn't have."
Malone, who is no wallflower either, told the Journal that their relationship was "uncomfortable for Barry."
Talk about an understatement.
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