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Diller Seeks 'Transformational' Acquisition

IAC/InterActiveCorp, Barry Diller's Web media conglomerate, is "wildly overcapitalized," with a cash hoard of $2 billion and virtually no debt, according to Forbes, but Wall Street has been tough on the Internet giant of late. Diller split the company into five separate businesses last year, and now he is taking another big gamble, seeking a "transformational" acquisition to boost the company's flagging stock price.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Diller's next deal is transformational, maybe even something on the scale of a YouTube," says Alan Gould, media analyst at Natixis Bleichroeder. "The world has changed a lot since the birth of HSN (The Home Shopping Network). Diller no longer has a burning desire for home shopping." Indeed, Diller has had little to say about the recent carnage at HSN, one of the companies spun off by IAC last year.

Instead, Forbes says, he's been busy "retooling his strategy from shopping at home to dating abroad": online dating giant Match.com now operates in 35 countries and 15 languages. Asia has been of particular interest to Diller of late. The media mogul recently scooped up Chinese dating site eDodo, and is now looking at building a Chinese version of Ask.com. He is now reportedly searching for the Chinese equivalent of the Huffington Post.

Read the whole story at Forbes.com »

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