Diller Steps Aside as IAC CEO
Unlikely Web magnate Barry Diller says IAC needs an "aspirational" leader. Match.com CEO Greg Blatt may fit the bill.
Unlikely Web magnate Barry Diller says IAC needs an "aspirational" leader. Match.com CEO Greg Blatt may fit the bill.
Barry Diller is stepping down as CEO of IAC/Interactive, handing the reigns to Greg Blatt, previously the head of IAC’s Match.com.
The executive changes accompany an agreement between IAC and Liberty Media to go their separate ways. Liberty had held 60 percent voting power in IAC, but will relinquish that for $220 million in cash and a full ownership of an IAC subsidiary that includes Evite and Gifts.com.
Diller will now become chairman of IAC, as well as the company’s largest shareholder, with a 34 percent voting stake.
Greg Blatt has been with IAC since 2003. He became CEO of Match.com in February 2009.
“It’s been clear to me for some time that this company needs a full time aggressive and aspirational executive in the CEO role,” said Diller in a written statement. “While I’m not going anywhere, IAC, with its operating businesses growing, large cash resources and virtually no debt, needs the kind of leadership that Greg Blatt can bring it in order to continue to grow and thrive many years into the future.”