New York - IAC (NASD: IACI) , the media conglomerate run by Barry Diller that owns Ticketmaster, Citysearch, Ask.com and many other properties, announced on Monday a plan to split IAC into five publicly-traded companies. "We've been a complex enterprise almost from the very beginning 12 years ago, with hundreds of transactions over those years. And while we've created a lot of value, I've always believed our complexity and many mouthfuls of sentences to explain who we are and what our strategy is have hampered clarity and understanding with all our constituencies, particularly investors," said IAC chairman and CEO Barry Diller.

Newly separate companies created through the move are Ticketmaster, which includes the company's investments in iLike and Frontline; HSN, the company's retailing segment; Interval International, which will include CondoDirect and VacationSource.com; LendingTree, including RealEstate.com and Home Loan Center; and IAC, comprising the company's media and advertising, emerging businesses and other investments.

IAC will continue to house properties including Match.com, Ask.com, Bloglines, Citysearch, Evite and iWon.

"One of the reasons we've stayed with some of our more transactional businesses is that we needed their earnings to allow us to invest in emerging Internet businesses," added Diller.

"Now that we have real scale in the pure Internet units, it makes nothing but sense to me to reorganize the whole. Each of these spun-off businesses is in fact a distinct business sector, and each will benefit from standing on its own."

The company also announced a new five-year deal with Google to provide sponsored search listings on its sites, which IAC said will be worth over $3.5 billion.

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http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/071105/iac.html (Reuters)

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