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Diller Splits Up HSN Holding Company

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By RICHARD MULLINS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 5, 2007

Home shopping channel HSN will become an independent company - again.

Media mogul Barry Diller has decided to break up his holding company, IAC/InterActiveCorp, into five separate companies. HSN will be split off as part of a "retailing" group along with a catalog operation that includes Ballard Designs and Frontgate.

Barry Diller (File)

HSN employs about 2,500 people in the Tampa Bay area, primarily at a St. Petersburg-based television production and customer service operation that runs 24 hours a day, selling everything from knives and sweaters to blenders and computers.

It was not immediately clear what effect Diller's move would have on HSN's local operation.

Diller, chairman and CEO of IAC, has spent years gathering a wide range of businesses under the IAC umbrella, hoping to blend them into an interactive-services giant that includes such high-profile brands as Match.com, Lending Tree and Ticketmaster.

"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," Diller said in a statement issued this morning.

Upon completion of the transaction, IAC's shareholders will own 100 percent of the equity in all five companies (IAC, HSN, Ticketmaster, Interval and LendingTree). The transaction is expected to be tax-free for IAC and its shareholders.

In morning trading, a share in IAC increased $2.04 to $31.66.

Reporter Richard Mullins can be reached at (813) 259-7919 or rmullins@tampatrib.com

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