Barry Diller has won his dispute with John Malone. Malone's Liberty Media (NASDAQ: LCAPA) owns a a large piece of the company that Diller runs, IAC/Interactive (NASDAQ: IACI). Diller has the right to vote those shares under a long-standing agreement.
Diller has decided to break IACI into five companies because the businesses in the firm do not have significant relationships to one another. Malone wanted to block the break-up and filed suit in court.
According to MarketWatch, "Vice Chancellor Stephen Lamb ruled Friday that "Liberty has failed to demonstrate that Diller has breached or threatened to breach any contractual duty he owes to Liberty," according to Lamb's 78-page opinion."
Diller can now complete his plans.
That leaves open the question of whether IACI is worth more in pieces than it is as a conglomerate. The firm's stock trades at $20, near its 52-week low and down from the period high of over $39. Some of the company's divisions, especially Lending Tree and HSN had tough years in 2007. These would get very low valuations as independent operations and might not make up for the value of more attractive operations like Ask.com
Diller may have gotten his way, but it is not clear that it will help shareholders.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-29-2008 @ 9:16AM
Colin said...
I think you mean ask.com, not aks.com