sorted by: recent | see :
popular
Content Tagged with 97 + 144
IAC Earnings Call: Diller: On To Election 2012; Not So Fast For His Own Business
Diller's his usual cranky self this morning on IAC's Q308 earnings conference call.
"Congratulations to those who supported the winner, condolences to those who didn't. After a short pause, we will be on to Election 2012."
-- Acquisitions strategy: We want to run the company long term; we do not want to run it quarter to quarter. I can tell you with absolute confidence that our acquisitions strategy going ahead will be disciplined going ahead, as we have done in the past (Ed: did you hear a snicker in the background?) We are not going to sit on the cash for a long period of time. I don't think it is all going to be in acquisitions, but one way or the other we will give some part to the shareholders.
More after the jump…
Ask.com: Little hard to get a handle of economic impact. Citysearch and Match businesses, we are seeing no discernible impact...one would expect to see it in local advertising at some point. Servicematch: there is some discernible impact, but still very strong growth year over year. Search side: Roughly half our business: the trends have not been good over the last 30 to 60 days. Commercially oriented queries are weakened, and monetization weakness too, and even aside from the Google contract impact.
-- 2009 plans: We are not going to frontally attack Google (NSDQ: GOOG). Given the new site we have with Ask.com, where we can more and more tell our audiences that we really are the best for getting specific answers, that will have over a time natural retention effect.
-- Dictionary.com acquisitions: We paid a rational price of $80 million, and it has exceeded all of our expectations from the first hour of first day. Besides its own traffic, it has bought 700K-800K additional queries a day to the Ask.com network.
-- Emerging businesses within IAC: No businesses in the emerging sectors are carrying any big investments. It is an area we not going to emphasize in the future: we think that is ditsy focusing. We don't think emerging businesses are the tomorrow of our business. Some of the things within our emerging businesses: we will sell off and shut down, and we will do that next month.
-- Would you sell off search: We are open to anyone's interest. We have no desire to sell off our search business. We think we can make progress on our own.
Photo credit: kk+
Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.
Earnings: IAC After The Split: Revs Up But Spin-Off Expenses Push Profits Down
You can almost hear the relief from the Gehry-designed HQ as IAC (NSDQ: IACI) reports what chairman and CEO Barry Diller calls "the last quarter when the costs of our spin-offs will distort the operating performance." Post-spin IAC posted a 10 percent increase in revenue for Q3, to $369.3 million from $335.4 million. But charges, spin-off expenses and taxes related to discontinued operations helped push IAC to a loss of $14.8 million loss, or $.11 per share, compared with a profit of $70.5 million, or $.47 per share, for Q307.
After this, Diller said in the earnings release, "our streamlined focus, virtually no debt and large cash balances should provide both long-term growth in our current businesses and allow us to pursue opportunities across the internet." IAC ended the spin-off quarter with approximately $1.5 billion in cash and marketable securities—and only $95.8 million in long-term debt. (The spin spreadsheets are another story.) Some highlights after the jump…
-- Media and advertising: Revenue grew only 2 percent to $193.3 million from $189.8 million the previous year but the operating profit for the business, which includes Ask.com, Dictionary.com, iWon, and Citysearch, rose 105 percent to $32.1 million from $15.7 million. That increase was driven in part by the acquisition of Dictionary.com and international improvements at Ask.com. Proprietary revenue now makes up 71.5 percent, outpacing network revenue.
-- Ask.com: Drilling down a little, while the search engine did better with queries internationally, that growth was offset partially by declines in U.S. queries "due to significantly lower advertising." IAC credits the renewed Google (NSDQ: GOOG) ad deal with "improved economics" but says revenue per query would have grown without it. At the same time, IAC admits the Google deal contributed to a "sharp decline in network revenue" because other relationships had to be "de-emphasized." Lower marketing spending helped profit grow at a faster pace.
-- Emerging businesses: A narrower loss for the emerging businesses—$7.4 million compared with $9.9 million in Q307. Those businesses include recently launched Daily Beast, VSL, RushmoreDrive.com, Life123.com; Shoebuy, ReserveAmerica, Pronto.com, Gifts.com, InstantAction.com, Connected Ventures, and 23.
Check back for coverage of the 11 AM call.
-- Side note: In case you were wondering about the way IAC defines itself post-spin, here's the boilerplate: "IAC operates more than 35 leading and diversified Internet businesses across 40 countries… our mission is to harness the power of interactivity to make daily life easier and more productive for people all over the world."
Earnings release | Webcast (11 AM ET)
Photo credit: victoriapeckham
Mark Logic Digital Publishing Summit, Thursday November 6, Westin Times Square. Insight and perspective from Outsell, Gilbane, Simon & Schuster, BusinessWeek.com, more. Evening cocktail reception. Cost is complimentary. Register now!
IAC Call: Search Ads Hold Up, While Display 'Spotty'; Looking At All Deals, But Will Be Selective
For its last call as a single company, all five CEOs and their CFOs are on IAC's conference call. Kicking off the call, Diller noted that it's not even worth talking about Old IAC anymore, in part because it's almost gone, but really because "It's just too much complexity and information." That statement speaks as much to the company's conference calls and earnings releases as it does to the whole notion of Old IAC: 'just too much complexity'. Hence the breakup. Right now the company doesn't have precise timing on the split, except that it will be "very soon". Diller said he hoped to talk about all five companies on the call, and that he didn't want New IAC to hog the time, but almost every question was on New IAC (NSDQ: IACI). At a couple of points, Diller, from the position as a shareholder in each company, took the job himself to ask questions of the other CEOs.
-- Use Of Cash: Since New IAC will be starting off with $1.3 billion, there was a lot of talk on the call about what the company would do with the cash, particularly as it relates to acquisitions. On whether IAC would get active in acquiring startup web firms, Diller talked about inflated valuations, and the alchemy by which startups grow their valuation from round to round without having actually created any value. "We're not going to be in that game… we're going to be extremely disciplined about anything that we acquire. And I'm absolutely certain that we're going to be better than the cost of capital." IAC is not just going to sit there with the cash, but we're not going to put it down on something that isn't productive." So what will they do with the cash? Well, they will do some acquisitions. McInerney: "We're going to buy properties where we can add value with our distribution and monetization." Lexico is an example of a property they can get more value out of by doing things like cross listings, etc. "That's the acquisition focus: taking internet properties we know we can improve." Other uses of cash include new startup opportunities. Diller: "The investments that we've made in starting businesses have almost all paid off for us." Expect to see more sites like Life123 and RushmoreDrive. But the pace of acquisitions won't change, says Diller: IAC looks at everything. "We're looking at a number of things now… we're not going to suddenly wake up next month or two months from now and come out with ten acquisitions… we'll kind of keep up our regular pace of things." More after the jump
-- New IAC Profitability: Rather than have all of the CEOs go through their own numbers, CFO Tom McInerney quickly ran through the results of each unit. On New IAC, he noted the lower revenue was "reflecting de-emphasis of sponsored listing distributions business." All IAC divisions grew profits by double digits, except emerging businesses, which remains in investment mode. For the coming quarters, except to see the same trends, perhaps even a decline in revenue growth, but again, at higher margins, so this is a voluntary tradeoff.
-- Online Ad Environment: McInerney: "When we look at the business, there's always pockets… in these types of climates, the most performance-oriented advertising tends to be the most resilient (search, lead-gen)." Search is seeing good gains, even excluding the new Google (NSDQ: GOOG) agreement. "Display side is a little spottier". Diller: "There's generally a shift, as we all know, to online advertising in the greater pie… (given that it's targeted and based on actions), the secular change is going to have an ameliorating effect on whatever the general economic effects on advertising are."
-- Search Share: Diller: "We spent a good deal on marketing (ed note: the billboards), we got big, big increases in queries… after we stopped marketing, we lost many of them." Now it's more important to focus on frequency and retention, both of which are up significantly year over year. In the late 4th quarter, new marketing endeavors will be based on a "more practical path." On share: "We just passed AOL… that's not one of the great land feats in the world"
-- Mobile: Diller: It's all still in the early stages. "09 is going to see more action in mobile… all of our businesses are geared for participating."
-- Non-Ask IAC: Both CitySerach and Evite are doing well. CitySearch will do over $100 million revenue next year. Evite growing 20 percent year over year. Both services have very significant product overhauls coming in the back half of the year. Expect a lot more investments into local next year.
Related
Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
Earnings: IAC Income Slips, But Beats Estimates; Growth Moderate At 'New IAC'
As it gets set to break into five parts, IAC (NSDQ: IACI) has announced Q2 revenue of $1.59 billion, a 7 percent increase from a year ago. Adjusted net income slipped 2 percent to $101.3 million ($.35 per share) from $103.7 million ($.34 per share) in the year ago quarter. This still beat EPS estimates, however, that called for $.31 per share.
-- New IAC: New IAC reported 11 percent revenue growth to $354.4 million, which is behind the 22 percent growth reported in Q1. It's also behind estimates we'd seen, calling for 13 percent revenue growth in the unit. A key factor to the declining growth, however, was a change in revenue mix to higher margin advertising—some of it having to do with the revised economics of the Google (NSDQ: GOOG) deal. Media & Advertising revenue only grew by 7 percent in the quarter to $186.3 million, whereas last quarter that line was up 28 percent to $215.5 million. Again, the advertising mix is key, so these revenues are at higher margins than in the previous year. Match's growth slowed to 8 percent from 10 percent last quarter. The emerging businesses category continues to perform well, growing 40 percent since last year, though again, down from 54 percent in Q1. Total operating profit for the unit stood at $29.8 million, a slight dip from Q1.
-- The spins: As for the other units, it's a pretty mixed bag. HSN was up 2 percent to $695.8 million, while LendingTree revenue was crushed, falling 47 percent to $60 million. On the bright side, Ticketmaster grew 30 percent to $382.4 million, and Interval was up 20 percent to $103.2 million. HSN, Ticketmaster and Interval were all on the strong side of forecasts, a good sign heading up to their spin.
Release | Webcast (11:00 AM ET)
Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
TicketMaster To Carry $750 Million In Debt; HSN and Interval To Have Net Debt As Well
Back in May, when IAC released the first details of its five-way split, it said it would saddle the spincos with debt and that the proceeds would go back to New IAC (NSDQ: IACI). Other than that, it didn't go deep into balance sheet specifics. On a call with analysts, IAC CFO Thomas McInerney offered one detail, saying TicketMaster would carry $750 million in debt and $450 million in cash. As for HSN and LendingTree, he said they too would be net borrowers, though the specifics weren't announced, according to Reuters. More details on the various payments are expected to come later this week, according to WSJ, which notes that the company will take in over $1 billion in total. It still doesn't sound like the beleagured LendingTree business will be forced to carry an extra debt load, however. Note that Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) has adopted the same principle for its Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) spin, as the new unit will take on about $10 billion of debt to be paid to the parent.
Meanwhile, McInerney says the spin remains on track to take place some time in July or August, as previously indicated.
Related
Earnings: Liberty Interactive Up 10 Percent; IAC Resolution 'Possible'; Starz-Viacom Competition
Maybe it's just the time of day but looking at Liberty Media's (NSDQ: LINTA) Q1 earnings and listening to the call is making my head hurt. While thorn-in-the-side Barry Diller plans to simplify his complex creation by spinning off four companies, the even-more-complex company John Malone built has opted for the virtual route. It's now up to three tracking stocks that are supposed to help investors amd analysts make more sense of it all and literally follow certain businesses more carefully: Liberty Interactive Media, (QVC, interest in IAC (NSDQ: IACI), and other e-commerce businesses), newly reclassified Liberty Capital and now Liberty Entertainment, created with the acquisition of the majority interest in DirecTV (NYSE: DTV) and three regional nets, and including Starz Entertainment.
IAC resolution?: Asked about the situation during Q&A, CEO Greg Maffei said a resolution is possible. Would Home Shopping Network be one solution? "We remain open to a transaction if it can be done at an attractive price ... if you look at the operating structure it isn't apparent there are a lot of cost efficiencies." He said the company hasn't done internal due diligence on HSN yet, which is its own clue. A side note: Liberty lists the value of certain holdings year over year and IAC dropped to $1.73 billion from $1.86 billion even thought Liberty bought more stock. Then again, that court fight in Delaware wasn't exactly good for share value.
Some financials:—Liberty Interactive revenue rose 10 percent to $1.9 billion.
-- Liberty Entertainment revenue was up 11 percent, to $310 million. Starz Entertainment revenue was $273 million, compared with $265 million last year. Subscriber numbers were up year over year and sequentially for Starz and Encore.
Competition from new Viacom (NYSE: VIA) pay TV JV: This came up in prepared remarks and again in questions as analysts try to figure out what the recently announced Viacom-MGM-Lionsgate JV. CEO Robert Clasen said he doesn't take the competition lightly. He stressed Starz's own increased emphasis on original programming, its new Overture Films studio and deals with Disney (NYSE: DIS) and Sony (NYSE: SNE) that run into the next decade, as well as a library deal with MGM. He also talked about the "massive" distribution a new pay service would need to be successful but acknowledged that one or two good distribution partners could make the difference.
Time Warner: Now that News Corp (NYSE: NWS) is out of the way with the DirecTV swap, analysts want to know what LIberty is going to do with the rest of that stock. Maffei: "We'll take our chances for the moment on TWX stock" but if something interesting comes along ...
Earnings release | Webcast | Slides
10-Q Watch: IAC: Liberty Appeal Deadline Today; Ticketmaster Acquisitions; New IAC Losses
It looks like the clock has run out on Liberty if it wants to appeal the ruling it lost to IAC: according to IAC's (NSDQ: IACI) just-filed 10-q, the appeal deadline is today, and so far it knows of no appeal having been filed. While this option has been open, it wasn't particularly anticipated. Some other highlights:
-- Ticketmaster: While revenue grew 15 percent during the quarter, the company acknowledged that much of this was due to acquisitions, including Paciloan and TicketsNow. As for its future strategy post-Live Nation: "Ticketmaster has taken steps to replace the revenue it expects to lose upon the expiration of its contract with Live Nation (NYSE: LYV), Inc. at the end of 2008. These include a number of discrete investments including new acquisitions, efforts to gain scale in the market for ticket resale services and adding resources into growth efforts internationally which come with up front costs." The filing suggests that it will continue to invest in scaling the business.
-- Acquisitions: Altogether, IAC spent $353.8 million net of cash on acquisitions, mainly on deals to bolster Ticketmaster. It also said it increased its level of long-term investment by $48.5 million due to its investment in The HealthCentral Network.
-- New IAC: Most of this was on the call: revenue growth can be attributed to the new Google (NSDQ: GOOG) deal, though the filing claims that the expanded loss was due to the launch of RushmoreDrive.com and InstantAction.
Related
Earnings: IAC Q1 Revs Up 8 Percent; 'New IAC' Revs Up 22 Percent; Income Down 13 Percent
In its first report since a Delaware court win affirming chairman and CEO Barry Diller's authority, IAC (NSDQ: IACI) announced Q1 revenue of $1.6 billion an 8 percent increase from $1.49 billion in the year-ago quarter. Net income, however, slipped 13 percent to $52.8 million ($.18 per share) from $60.7 million ($.20 per share). Earnings were hit by income decline at HSN—which is seen as a possible bargaining chip in its attempt to completely extricate itself from John Malone and Liberty Media (NSDQ: LINTA). Op income in that unit fell 42 percent to $20.2 million. On the other hand, revenue growth at 'New IAC', as it would be called post-spin, was up 22 percent, with its op loss slimming to $33 million from $39 million. Some highlights:
-- At New IAC, media and advertising revenue grew 28 percent to $215.5 million, while Match.com rose 10 percent to $90.5 million. The growth in ad revenue was partly attributed to the company's renewed partnership with Google (NSDQ: GOOG), which it said contributed to higher revenue per query on Ask.com. Total queries declined due to a decrease in marketing—so fewer Ask.com ads on TV, which is something analysts had been wanting to see go.
-- Ticketmaster revenue grew 15 percent to $349 million, but profit declined 21 percent, which the company blamed on higher technology and royalty costs.
-- No surprise at LendingTree, as the unit continues to be hard hit by the economy. Revenue fell 38 percent, and the unit's loss deepened to $8.7 million from a loss of $7.8 million.
Bottom line: In the statement, CEO Barry Diller said the quarter's results demonstrate: "it couldn't be clearer that we are on the right course in separating IAC into 5 distinct public entities." Certainly, now that the company introduced the notion of the spin, it's hard to imagine what business these disparate units have being under the same roof.
Release | Webcast (11:00 AM ET)
Earnings: IAC: Not Talking Swap Transaction With Liberty; Unlikely To Sell Spins To PE
With IAC (NSDQ: IACI) having defeated Liberty in court, CEO Barry Diller's spin plan can go through as planned. As such, said Diller: "What we're not discussing is a so-called swap transaction with Liberty." As I mentioned this morning, it's been speculated that IAC could trade out HSN in order for Liberty to relinquish its grip. It's still possible, but, said Diller: "It's very unlikely." As for progress on the spin, the IAC board met Monday to move forward, and it plans a series of meetings with investors and analysts to pitch the case for the spin. In terms of timing: "I would think we're going to have one or two more board level discussions on this… we believe that we'll get this done in the third quarter, hopefully the early part." Some sort of filing on this will come this month.
-- PE interest?: It's been speculated in the past that some of the new spincos could be bought by a PE firm, but for now, Diller doesn't see it happening: "We've had lots of discussions… lots of people knocking on the doors… The truth is is that we're probably not going to do any of them… the best thing is simplicity." But again, it's still possible
-- Queries: Not worried about query decline at Ask, as it's been attributed to the decline in expensive marketing spend. Instead, the company is focusing on its core user base, which, it claims, is more engaged in the property.
-- Pronto: The comparison shopping service is about at breakeven and should make money soon.
-- Any future hurdles to spin?: Diller: "There's nothing in our process that appears to us that it could cause a delay."
Related
Diller: Split Plans On Schedule; No Interest In Pre-Split Sales; MSFT-YHOO Good For Ask
With IAC (NSDQ: IACI) locked in a battle with Liberty to complete its intended break up, CEO Barry Diller used the company's quarterly call to drive home the point that breakup planning is still on track. He described Liberty's legal actions as "an unfortunate situation", but until the issue is worked out in the courts (mid-March at the earliest, and at most a couple of months), IAC is moving forward on its plans.
-- Liberty litigation: Diller: "I do believe we will prevail..."All the directors, including Liberty's, approved a spin concept." The company has a Mar. 10 court date and since it's an expedited process, a court decision could be handed down soon after.
-- Contingencies if Liberty wins: No contingency planning (so it's claimed)??? if Liberty does prevail, that's going to obviously have consequences.
-- Private equity: During the Q&A, Diller was asked whether private equity had expressed interest in the company's various. "We've had a lot of interest??? we have no interest in selling an asset in its entirety prior to the spin." IAC continues to to have discussions. One or two of our business may see outside investors acquire a stake pre-spin but an outright sale is unlikely, given the tax issues. More after the jump.
-- Google (NSDQ: GOOG) deal: The latest Google deal was not in effect as of the latest release, but has since started. The changes will reduce top-line revenue growth, but it will lead to an increase in higher margin, in-network revenue, so profit growth will increase. It sounds like the company is trying to explain away future growth weakness, if it comes.
-- YHOO-MSFT: Diller: "I think that if Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) does acquire Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), it will strengthen competition, in terms of having at least two players that are strong and probably enduring." He explained that before IAC signed its recent deal with Google, both Microsoft and Yahoo vied for that business, but didn't have the scale to compete: "We had extensive conversations with Microsoft and Yahoo??? as much as they wanted to, they simply did not have the ability to bid for us??? if they combined, I think that they would have." In the meantime, Ask is focused on innovation and Diller believes that with Yahoo and Microsoft in a holding pattern on search innovation, they are slowing down their pace of innovation. "I think that this gives us an advantage."
-- Interest in AOL: Diller was asked if he'd stand by previous comments about being interested in buying AOL: "I don't really feel the same way." He then suggested that he's not so keen on the portal business right now. "If AOL (NYSE: TWX) came down in price to something really ridiculous, we probably would look at it."
-- Ticketmaster: In the future, Ticketmaster won't just be tickets. But, it won't be in the '360 business.' " It won't go out and buy some superstar", but will be in things like live events and fan clubs. So it will look more like Live Nation (NYSE: LYV), but it won't have Madonna.
-- Online advertising: IAC is building its own online ad network (though it didn't go into any details on this) and it believes that the "New IAC" will be in a position to deliver more targeted, niche ads.
Related
Earnings: Diller: Split Plans On Schedule; No Interest In Pre-Split Sales; MSFT-YHOO Good For Ask
With IAC (NSDQ: IACI) locked in a battle with Liberty to complete its intended break up, CEO Barry Diller used the company's quarterly call to drive home the point that breakup planning is still on track. He described Liberty's legal actions as "an unfortunate situation", but until the issue is worked out in the courts (mid-March at the earliest, and at most a couple of months), IAC is moving forward on its plans.
-- Liberty litigation: Diller: "I do believe we will prevail..."All the directors, including Liberty's, approved a spin concept." The company has a Mar. 10 court date and since it's an expedited process, a court decision could be handed down soon after.
-- Contingencies if Liberty wins: No contingency planning (so it's claimed)??? if Liberty does prevail, that's going to obviously have consequences.
-- Private equity: During the Q&A, Diller was asked whether private equity had expressed interest in the company's various. "We've had a lot of interest??? we have no interest in selling an asset in its entirety prior to the spin." IAC continues to to have discussions. One or two of our business may see outside investors acquire a stake pre-spin but an outright sale is unlikely, given the tax issues.
-- Google (NSDQ: GOOG) deal: The latest Google deal was not in effect as of the latest release, but has since started. The changes will reduce top-line revenue growth, but it will lead to an increase in higher margin, in-network revenue, so profit growth will increase. It sounds like the company is trying to explain away future growth weakness, if it comes.
-- YHOO-MSFT: Diller: "I think that if Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) does acquire Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), it will strengthen competition, in terms of having at least two players that are strong and probably enduring." He explained that before IAC signed its recent deal with Google, both Microsoft and Yahoo vied for that business, but didn't have the scale to compete: "We had extensive conversations with Microsoft and Yahoo??? as much as they wanted to, they simply did not have the ability to bid for us??? if they combined, I think that they would have." In the meantime, Ask is focused on innovation and Diller believes that with Yahoo and Microsoft in a holding pattern on search innovation, they are slowing down their pace of innovation. "I think that this gives us an advantage."
-- Interest in AOL: Diller was asked if he'd stand by previous comments about being interested in buying AOL: "I don't really feel the same way." He then suggested that he's not so keen on the portal business right now. "If AOL (NYSE: TWX) came down in price to something really ridiculous, we probably would look at it."
-- Ticketmaster: In the future, Ticketmaster won't just be tickets. But, it won't be in the '360 business.' " It won't go out and buy some superstar", but will be in things like live events and fan clubs. So it will look more like Live Nation (NYSE: LYV), but it won't have Madonna.
-- Online advertising: IAC is building its own online ad network (though it didn't go into any details on this) and it believes that the "New IAC" will be in a position to deliver more targeted, niche ads.
Related
Earnings: IACI Q4 Revs Up 8 Percent; 'New' IAC Revs Would Be Up 21 Percent; Big Loss On Lending Tree
IAC (NSDQ: IACI) managed to get its earnings out after all… the internet conglomerate, locked in a court battle with Liberty Media (NSDQ: LINTA), reported Q4 revenue of $1.86 billion, up 8 percent year-over-year from $1.72 billion. It booked a big $369.9 million net loss in the quarter, primarily associated with a big writedown in its lending (LendingTree) business. The mixed results are being used by Barry Diller to make the case for the proposed break-up: "There is good news and bad news this quarter—the mix of which is another reason why our previously announced plans to reorganize IAC into five independent public companies makes more and more sense." Some divisional highlights:
-- IAC, as it would appear post-spin, reported revenue growth of 21 percent to $459.8 million. This was helped by 42 advertising growth in media & advertising and 14 percent growth at its Match.com business. Operating losses in the unit narrowed to $59.2 million from a loss of $184.1 million. The revenue impact from proprietary and network sites have reversed, as Network revenue contributed 51.7 percent of media revenue, compared to 44.5 percent. Increased adoption of its toolbar and sponsored listings contributed to the change.
-- HSN, again as it would report post-spin, grew revenue by 3 percent to $905.3 million.
-- Higher worldwide ticket volume grew revenue at TicketMaster 27 percent to $354.7 million.
Release | Webcast (11:00 AM ET)
Related
IAC: Liberty's 'Irresponsible Ploy' Creating Chaos; Earnings May Be Delayed; Liberty Files With SEC
Updated below: The IAC-Liberty dispute (or Diller-Malone, if you think it's all personal) is long past the point of getting ugly. In its latest salvo, a filing in Delaware court obtained by WSJ, IAC (NSDQ: IACI) calls Liberty Media's (NSDQ: LINTA) motion to remove Barry Diller from IAC's board an "irresponsible ploy" designed "to create management and market chaos for IAC." This is all a prelude to a larger battle, but in the short-term, IAC believes its audit committee may not be able sign off on earnings currently scheduled for next week. Stay tuned.
Staci adds: Liberty filed an amended ownership document with the SEC after hours. It details the various moves of the past few weeks and puts into bas relief Liberty's own "corporate coup"???to borrow one of the company's descriptions of Diller's moves. The filing follows up on Liberty's moves earlier this week to strip Diller of his place at the head of BDTV and its various entities (those are the companies used to hold most of Liberty's interests in IAC). Liberty replaced him with its CEO, Greg Maffei, and used that to amend the bylaws, order the removal of Diller and others from the IAC board and replace them with Maffei and two other Liberty reps. Liberty is seeking a ruling in Delaware Chancery Court that upholds these moves and requires IAC to maintain the status quo.
Liberty's amended bylaws essentially would prohibit IAC management from doing anything except existing???no deals for anything valued more than $10 million, nothing but routine third-party agreements, etc.
Related
IAC: Liberty's 'Irresponsible Ploy' Creating Chaos For Management; Earnings May Be Delayed
The IAC-Liberty dispute (or Diller-Malone, if you think it's all personal) is long past the point of getting ugly. In its latest salvo, a filing in Delaware court obtained by WSJ, IAC (NSDQ: IACI) calls Liberty Media's (NSDQ: LINTA) motion to remove Barry Diller from IAC's board an "irresponsible ploy" designed to "to create management and market chaos for IAC." This is all a prelude to a larger battle, but in the short-term, IAC believes its audit committee may not be able sign off on earnings currently scheduled for next week. Stay tuned.
Related
Earnings: IAC Q3 Revenues up 7.4 Percent; Media & Advertising Grows 40 Percent
IAC reported Q3 revenue of $1.51 billion, up 7.4 percent from last year's $1.41 billion. Net income slipped 4.2 percent to $71.8 million from $74.9 million, although earnings per share stayed flat at $.24, owing to a reduction in shares outstanding. Some highlights:
-- Media & Advertising: This business, which includes Ask, CitySearch and Evite saw revenue growth of 40 percent to $189.8 million, making it by far the company's best performer. The company cited an increase in search queries, particularly syndicated search, as well as higher revenue per query. It also claimed strong performance at its Fun Web Products business. Operarting income for the unit swung to $15.4 million from a loss of $2.1 million in the year-ago period.
-- Transactions: Revenue slipped 1 percent to $402.6 million, although this masks a mixed bag of results. While Ticketmaster revenue grew 13 percent to $301.3 million, business at LendingTree plummeted 41 percent to $61 million.
-- Match.com: Revenues hit $89.1 million, up 11 percent year-over-year.
Release | Webcast (11:00 AM) | Transcript (via SeekingAlpha)
Conference Call: Despite the growth in IAC's Media & Advertising business, Ask.com remains a concern, particularly as the company has invested so much into promoting the site. Despite a few questions attempting to suss out information about the site, management didn't delve too deep into specifics on the call. EVP & CFO Douglas R. Lebda: (from the transcript) "On the Ask.com site, I mentioned that we are definitely very pleased with Ask.com. We are pleased with the growth in queries. We are pleased with the product and the infrastructure, we love the interface and next up is the infrastructure, as I mentioned."
-- Promoting Ask.com: Lebda: "Just in terms of the overall though, our Q3 spend was much less than it has been in prior quarters. However, with that, we've still seen great results from the advertising. We know that product demo spots work and the more we can highlight the great tools and features of Ask.com, the better we see that working."
Related
Updated: Earnings: IAC Q2 Profits Rise; Revs Up; Ask.com Ad Campaign Not Working?
Updated below: InterActive Corp. (Nasdaq: IACI), the parent of sites such as Ask.com and CitySearch, posted Q2 earnings growth of 78.4 percent to $95.97 million, or 32 cents per share, from $53.8 million, or 17 cents per share, a year ago. Revenue rose 5.6 percent to $1.51 billion. Other highlights from its report included:
-- Results for the Media & Advertising segment, which encompasses IAC Search & Media (Ask.com and Fun Web Products), Citysearch and Evite, posted an operating loss of $10.7 million versus $11.3 million the year before. Revenues were up 33 percent to $174 million from $131.3 million. The increase in revenues was driven by more queries from syndicated search and at Fun Web Products, partially offset by lower revenue per query across most other properties. The company said that users need fewer clicks to find what they are looking for on the new Ask.com, which resulted in lower revenue per query since the June launch, but higher frequency and retention.
-- The Membership segment's Entertainment unit saw revenues decline 3 percent to $18.9 million. Earnings release | Webcast (11:00 a.m. EST)
Updated from the conference call transcript: Tom McInerney, IAC's CFO, on Ask.com's new ad campaign: "As you know, the business is related to driving new users, obviously frequency and retention we have seen good improvements in frequency and retention, but it's offset by not having the growth in new users on the Ask.com business...we can very scientifically look at the marketing spend in the US and relate that to new user growth and so the way to measure it is by new users showing up at the site and we're not seeing it with this marketing campaign, the way we have seen it with prior marketing campaigns. What we're doing on that front is retooling the marketing campaign, making it a much stronger call to action and much more product demo spots for later in the year and we hope that will have some effect.
Diller gives a more positive spin to this: "We think that it was effective, but not necessarily effective on day counts of additional users for queries for Ask or new users, but it certainly was effective in repositioning Ask and introducing Ask X, which is the new Ask."
