CEO Barry Diller

Besides being hampered by weakness in the online advertising market, IAC/InterActiveCorp's Web-based city guide, Citysearch, is facing increasing competition from a rising tide of social review and recommendation sites. These include review site Yelp, which is seen as its biggest rival in the business-review space. During a conference call with analysts Tuesday to discuss IAC's third-quarter results, media mogul and IAC CEO Barry Diller discussed the possibility that IAC might grow Citysearch by buying other local Web properties. QUESTION: Given the increasing popularity of social networking and recommendation Web sites, what opportunities do you see for Citysearch to buy other local Web sites? ANSWER: ... Read Full Story

IAC/InterActiveCorp reports earnings for the third quarter on Tuesday before the market opens. The following is a summary of key developments and analyst opinion related to the period: OVERVIEW: During the third quarter, the Barry Diller-led Internet company said it would begin a new media venture with Ben Silverman, who was leaving his post as co-chairman of NBC Entertainment. The venture, which was announced in July, will aim to bring advertisers into the development process for TV shows and Web videos. IAC said at the time that it plans to develop content and marketing across every medium. IAC has not yet released the name ... Read Full Story

BARRY DILLER'S BRASH NEW STRATEGY Few moguls have reinvented themselves more often than Barry Diller. Over the past 17 years he has been a TV executive, home shopping baron, and, most recently, e-commerce impresario. Now, Diller is at it again, and his Act Four is decidedly contrarian. At a time when content providers are struggling to make money from online news, blogs, movies, music, and more, Diller is diving in. "[What] we're running now is a media-based interactive company," he says, speaking from his 300-foot yacht, Eos, off Indonesia. Yes, but what about the digerati who insist "information wants to be free"? Diller is ... Read Full Story

Ask.com could soon be up for sale, judging by the comments of IAC CEO Barry Diller. (Credit: Screenshot by Tom Krazit/CNET) Ask.com could be on the block, judging by the comments of the CEO of its parent company. Reuters reported on IAC's third-quarter earnings conference call Tuesday, where CEO Barry Diller all but opened the bidding for the struggling search engine. Despite a novel promotional deal with Nascar , Ask.com has failed to make much headway against the great powers of search in Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. "We've been asked a lot whether we're open to consolidating transactions in the area of search. The ... Read Full Story

The search engine market was once a fairly predictable and intriguing place where the mantra was “Google-and-everybody-else.” There was innovation, but nobody really believed that Microsoft, Yahoo, or any other startup could pose a threat to Google’s search empire. The entire search market was thrown onto a roller coaster though when Microsoft revealed Bing to the world. The new search engine promised to not only be a remake of Microsoft Live Search, but a completely new take on how search should be implemented. The Redmond-based company’s war against Google has steadily gained momentum: an intense promotional campaign , the Yahoo-Microsoft search deal , and ... Read Full Story