IAC break-up will create five DM companies

With the approval of its board of directors, IAC will be divided into five publicly traded companies: IAC, HSN, Ticketmaster, Interval International and Lending Tree.

“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 Barry Diller, chairman and CEO of IAC, in a statement.

The earnings from some of IAC's more transactional businesses have enabled it to invest in the emerging Internet businesses over the years but, now that the Internet units have some scale, spinning off each unit so that it has its own capital structure makes sense, Diller continued. This will also enable each business to make acquisitions and offer a more focused story that investors can buy into, he said in the statement.

The IAC unit will encompass media and advertising brands, including Ask.com, Bloglines, Citysearch, IAC Advertising Solutions, Evite, Match.com and Shoebuy.com.

HSN will include the businesses currently comprising IAC's retailing segment, such as HSN TV, hsn.com and the Cornerstone Brands Inc. portfolio of multichannel brands: Alsto's, Ballard Designs, Frontgate, Garnet Hill, Smith+Noble and others.

Ticketmaster will include domestic and international operations including Admission.com, Biletix, Echomusic, Lippupalvelu, LiveDaily and TicketWeb.

Interval International will include CondoDirect, Resort Quest Hawaii and VacationSource.com.

Finally, LendingTree will include RealEstate.com, GetSmart, Home Loan Center and iNest.

Diller, Mindy Grossman, Sean Moriarty, CD Davies and Craig Nash will continue as the CEOs of HSN, Ticketmaster, LendingTree and Interval respectively, and Bret Violette will continue as president of RealEstate.com.

Upon completion of the transaction, IAC's shareholders will own 100% of the equity in all five companies. The company is based in New York.