InterActive splits into two companies; one, retail; the other, travel
IAC/InterActiveCorp has announced plans to split into two publicly traded companies, keeping some operations under the IAC name and placing others under the Expedia brand. Expedia led the travel category online in terms of unique visitors in November with 17.78 million, according to comScore Networks.
The new Expedia will include operations associated with Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Hotwire, TravelNow.com, Activity World, HotelDiscount.com, Condosaver.com, AllLuxuryHotels.com, Anyway.com, eLong, TV Travel Shop, Expedia Corporate Travel, Classic Custom Vacations and TripAdvisor.
IAC will operate HSN, HSN.com, America’s Store, Improvements, Ticketmaster, ReserveAmerica, TicketWeb, MuseumTix.com, HSE 24, 9Live, LendingTree, RealEstate.com., GetSmart, iNest, Domania, Citysearch, ServiceMagic, Entertainment Publications, Evite, Match.com, uDate, Precision Response Corp., Access Direct, Hancock Information Group and Interval International.
Barry Diller will remain chairman and CEO of IAC, while also serving as chairman and senior executive of the new Expedia. In a letter to shareholders, Diller said the split was needed because the company’s travel business has grown so rapidly that the public identified the company as travel-oriented-only. Stockholders of companies in other businesses were reluctant to accept stock in what they saw as a travel company, Diller said, adding that the perception slowed the growth of IAC.
According to November figures from comScore, 22.3 million Internet users visited the IAC Travel sites in November, including the 17.78 million who perused Expedia.
The No. 2 travel site in unique visitors, as recorded by comScore for November, was Orbitz.com, with 14.75 million; followed by Trip Network Inc., 12.33 million; Travelocity, 10.25 million; Priceline.com Inc., 8.48 million and Southwest.com, 6.64 million.
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