The New Internet Powerhouse?
from the Barry-Diller-strikes-again dept
An interesting look at how Barry Diller’s USA Interactive may quickly be turning into an internet powerhouse. Following the deal to sell off USA Networks’ entertainment division to Vivendi Universal, the remaining (all internet) properties of USA will be renamed USA Interactive and they’re planning on taking over the world. Thanks to the buyout they’ll have lots of cash, and they plan on buying up all the (now) cheap internet companies they can find to expand their empire. Currently, they have the home shopping network online (HSN.com), Ticketmaster.com, Match.com, Hotel Reservation Network, and others. They’re in the process of acquiring Microsoft’s stake in Expedia as well. It will be interesting to see what happens. There have been companies before that have just been a hodgepodge of dot com offerings that never really created any real synergies, but if Barry Diller can pull it off (a big if), then there might be another huge online player for AOL and Microsoft to watch out for.
Comments on “The New Internet Powerhouse?”
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A collection of non-synergistic properties does not make an internet powerhouse — remember Zapata?
Barry can stick together all the detritus he wants but the whole will not be greater than the sum of the parts. Cross-promotional synergies here are basically the equivalent of run-of-network banner ads — the cheapest ads any site sells.
Big yawn…