This post is one in a series in which more than 60 newsletter advisors share their Top Stock Picks for 2011. This special report is courtesy of TheStockAdvisors.com.

"IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI) -- my top stock pick for the coming year -- is the company behind Match.com and Ask.com," says David Fried.

The editor of The Buyback Letter explains, "The company also operates more than 50 other website properties that make up the 8th largest network of websites in the world, with 246.3 million unique visitors.

Continue reading Top Picks 2011: IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI)

Top Picks 2011: IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 05 Jan 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Google powers 72% of all U.S. web searches in February

Google powers 72% of all U.S. web searches in February originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Ask.com retools for more speed and relevance. Google doesn't care. originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Ask.com turns over its online mapping business to Microsoft originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IACI) needs to build up its little Ask.com franchise before it is spun out in a breakup of the parent company. Ask.com is an "also ran" in the search engine fight which includes Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO).

In an attempt to turn a loser into a contender, IACI is buying Lexico, which owns Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com. According to The Wall Street Journal, "Lexico sites drew about 15.6 million unique U.S. visitors in March, according to comScore Inc., compared with 55.4 million for Ask and an array of affiliated sites."

Even if the price of the new addition is low, the Lexico sites are not likely to do much good for the Ask.com franchise. It has already fallen so far behind the three search leaders that it almost certainly cannot catch up. Internet users have already set their preference in this part of the online market. Owning a dictionary site is not going to help that.

IACI's Ask.com can't come from behind and buying additional reference sites is not going to change that.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com and the author of the Ten Stocks Under $10 newsletter.

IAC/Interactive (IACI) gets into the dictionary business originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 15 May 2008 08:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

InterActive Corp. (IACI) planning to dump Ask.com's search technology? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Ask.com CEO relinquishes title amid InterActive shakeup originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Google again tops Internet search rankings originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 26 Dec 2007 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

IAC InterActive (NASDAQ:IACI)'s Ask.com has about 5% of the U.S. search engine market -- not much.

But the internet property is going to try to go against the trend. Instead of taking data from customers to target ads, Ask.com will let users "hide" their search data to promote privacy. The company is launching "AskEraser," which will destroy all personal information about a user.

According to The New York Times, unlike typical online privacy controls that can be difficult for average users to find or modify, people will be able to turn AskEraser on or off with a single click."

The privacy police will probably be very happy about the announcement. But it takes a big targeting tool away from Ask, and Ask can use all the help that it can get. It has tried and tried but has had no success in prying search share from Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) or Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO).

The move by Ask is based on the premise that most people care if search engines collect data on them to better target search results and advertising. Since very few people opt out of programs that collect data online, the answer is that almost no one gives a damn.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Ask.com tries to market user privacy with AskEraser originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 11 Dec 2007 08:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Time Warner shouldn't sell AOL, it should spin it off

Time Warner shouldn't sell AOL, it should spin it off originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 27 Nov 2007 12:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) is releasing a major upgrade to its search engine technology. The company calls the new version an improvement, but only time can tell whether that is accurate. According to the FT the product promises "more relevant answers to queries and integrates audio, video and photos into its results pages." Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Ask.com have also released similar upgrades to their search products.

Yahoo! almost certainly spent a huge sum of money and precious engineering resources to bring the new product to market, but the company is in the unenviable position of launching a new version of its technology that is not likely to get it any additional marketshare. In other words, the company is running hard to stay in place.

It may be notable that the Yahoo! search improvement comes after those from Microsoft and Ask.com. It is a sign that being first to market in the most profitable part of the internet business is no longer prized because of Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) huge lead.

For beaten down Yahoo!, a better mouse trap is not terribly valuable if there are no mice to catch.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

A new search engine for Yahoo! (YHOO) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 02 Oct 2007 04:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Barry Diller's daily life with IAC/InterActive (IACI) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 24 Sep 2007 13:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Poor data may once again lead to buyout speculation in Yahoo (YHOO) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 21 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IACI) released second quarter 2007 results , reporting $1.5 billion in revenue, representing a 6% rate of growth over the prior year. The company also posted $136 million in Operating Income Before Amortization, compared to $165 million in the year ago period. Adjusted EPS was $0.31, compared to $0.32 in the year ago period.

Operating income fell 33% to $54.4 million.

On a segment basis, revenue at the big retailing operation, which includes HSN, was up only 1% to $701.4 million. Operating income for the division fell 31% to $34.5 million.

Revenue in the transaction segment, which includes TicketMaster, was up 2% to $441.9 million. Operating income fell 36% to $48.5.

The media and advertising segment, which includes Ask.com, had revenue growth of 33% to $174 million. But, the segment had a loss of $10.7 million.

It looks like the small conglomerate is not doing very well and Ask.com does not appear to be bringing home the bacon.

Wall Street could fairly question why Barry Diller has all of these companies under one roof. They do each other very little good.

IACI stock was indicating down 4.6% just before the market opened at 9:26 am.

IAC Interactive earnings: Bad news all around originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 31 Jul 2007 10:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Actually, fluctuations happen every single month among the internet search kingpins like Google, Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Ask.com (NASDAQ: IACI). When Google and Yahoo! swap a half of a percentage point in market share for internet search, blog entries (like this one) and the media play it up. It's a non-issue, though. There are an infinite number of variables during each month globally -- like PC shipments, broadband internet penetration, mobile phone sales and marketing programs from all the search leaders -- which all affect market share in these nice little percentage slices.

Google web properties held fast in June with a 49.5% share of the U.S. search market, while Yahoo! sat at a comfortable 25.1% of the U.S. market. Microsoft was in third place with 13.2% and Ask.com and its network saw a market share of 5%. In fifth was Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX)'s AOL unit, with 4.2%. To put those percentages into perspective, U.S. internet customers conducted 8 billion searches in June, up 26% from June 2006. So, although the percentages are staying pretty much the same in terms of proportion, the actual volume has spiked nicely from a year ago. And, Google is still taking the lion's share. Minor percentage drop? Google's still sitting very pretty.

Google loses insignificant piece of market share originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 19 Jul 2007 13:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

eBay throws fit, then crawls back to Google originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 25 Jun 2007 13:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Fortress Investment (NYSE: FIG) volatility flat. Investors compare FIG to Blackstone (NYSE: BX). FIG, a global alternative asset manager with approximately $36 billion assets under management, has a market cap of $10.5 billion. Blackstone, a private equity firm, initial public offering was priced at $31 a share, valuing BX at about $33.6 billion. BX manages $88.4 billion, including $19.6 billion in its most recent buyout fund according to Bloomberg. FIG overall option implied volatility of 38 is near its 21-week average according to Track Data.

IAC/InterActive (NASDAQ: IACI) option implied volatility flat at 27. IACI closed at $35. Stifel Nicolaus said on 6/20/07 that it was "upgrading shares of IACI to Buy from Hold and initiating a $42 12-month target price. Our upgrade of IACI is based on 60% probability of a material corporate event occurring within the next 6-months." IACI overall option implied volatility of 27 is near its 26-week average of 25 according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price fluctuations.

Daily Option Update is provided by Stock Options Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Option update 6-22-07: FIG volatility flat as investors compare to Blackstone originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 22 Jun 2007 11:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Ask.com, the web search service that is owned and operated by IAC/InterActive Corp. (NASDAQ: IACI), has been fighting the good fight over the last year with a television, print and radio campaign that practically begs consumers to give its search service a try instead of just defaulting to Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)

While Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) are also competitors, Ask.com has chosen to focus its competitive stirrings directly on Google.

I use Ask.com every day, as some of the features the service provides are actually more intuitive and easier for my line of work that what Google can provide, something I wrote about about this time last year. But I use Google the majority of the time, like most web searchers.

Ask.com's search market share really has not made significant strides against Google lately, although it has grown a bit. The company is again targeting Google with a revamped and enhanced search page that is designed to get more people using Ask.com's service.

In fact, the services that Ask.com is now highlighting look like they were taken from Google's recent "Universal Search" play book. While it's a joy to use Ask.com every day, the company's battle to win more market share will never be easy. Google's brand recognition alone will be nearly impossible for any competitor to topple.

That's not to say Ask.com can't make gains (nor Yahoo! or Microsoft). The only unfortunate part is that even building an equal or semi-equal product does not guarantee customers will dump a competitor to come to you.

Ask.com readies itself for another Google war originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 06 Jun 2007 13:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Google's mobile effort sees heightened competition originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 16 May 2007 10:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The mobile search trains of Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) left the station some time ago. Even Nokia (NYSE: NOK), the world's largest handset company has its own search function.

With the estimates for mobile-based advertising pointing to $11 billion, according to Informa PLC, no one wants to be left behind.

IAC/Interactive (NASDAQ: IACI) will launch its own Ask Mobile software, which will include features from some of the parent's other websites, including City Search and Ticket Master. It will be introduced with Sprint (NYSE: S).

No matter how well the service works, it has two drawbacks. The first is that Ask.com is among the smallest search operations, with about 5% of the U.S. market. It brings that small share and a relatively late introduction to the mobile space to the table. It is also forming its first partnership with the weakest of the Big Three mobile carriers, which may be an indication it could not get AT&T Wireless (NYSE: T) or Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) to take the product.

Better late than never.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

IAC Interactive makes play late in mobile space originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 13 May 2007 08:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.