• Valleywag, Monday, June 15, 2009 2:15 PM

According to insiders, Very Short List, IAC's answer to Daily Candy, has been sold to Jared Kushner, the young real estate tycoon and owner of The New York Observer. The deal evidently went down sometime last week, as many of the VSL staff was told to pack their things Thursday night, as the Observer staff -- or what's left of it after a recent round of painful layoffs -- will now be running the show.

IAC's Barry Diller started VSL after seeing the money being made by Daily Candy, the daily e-mail that provides daily shopping tips. VSL attempted to cover more ground-cultural, arts, etc.-but never became profitable. Observers wonder if Kushner wasn't somewhat bamboozled into taking the property, as they say it's unlikely he will be able to make it profitable if Diller and his deep resources couldn't.

In an e-mail that went out to VSL's 30 or so employees on Sunday, the editors wrote: "This has been an intensely bittersweet week. Last Monday we picked up our Webby, which was the sweetest part, and testament to how inspired your work has been. Tomorrow, The New York Observer is taking over majority control and day-to-day management of VSL from IAC. Unfortunately, as part of the transition, they will not be taking any of VSL's existing staff."

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