IAC Shares Surge Despite $28M Quarterly Loss (Update) 29 April 2009, by RACHEL METZ , AP Technology Writer

IAC shares surge despite $28M quarterly loss (Update) 29 April 2009, By RACHEL METZ , AP Technology Writer

(AP) -- The recession took a bite out of Match.com and Chemistry.com dating sites, dipped IAC/InterActiveCorp in the first quarter, as revenue 1 percent to $90.1 million even though Match's paid fell 22 percent in the Internet company's media and subscribers rose 6 percent to 1.4 million. Revenue advertising unit, which includes the Ask.com per subscriber dipped 15 percent in international search engine. markets because of strength in the dollar. That means transactions done in other currencies Shares of IAC jumped $1, or 6.3 percent, to $16.96 translate into fewer dollars. in afternoon trading Wednesday, however, as investors likely found solace in the fact that IAC During a conference call with analysts, Diller said slightly exceeded revenue estimates and said it IAC has had discussions with Yahoo Inc. about bought back stock during the quarter. acquiring that company's personal-ads business.

The New York-based company, headed by Barry "Whether (the discussions) will go anywhere or not Diller, said that in the first three months it lost is, of course, enormously speculative," he said. $28.4 million, or 19 cents per share. "But I think Yahoo has said it's not an absolute core asset to their future, and it is core to us, This compares with a profit of $52.8 million, or 38 personals." cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. However, that quarter included income from operations that A Yahoo spokeswoman said the company had no IAC has since spun off - home shopping network comment. HSN Inc., time-share business Interval Leisure Group Inc., ticketing service Ticketmaster and As in the prior quarter, IAC saw growth in two units. lending and real estate business Tree.com Inc. Revenue in emerging businesses, a unit that includes Web sites like ShoeBuy and Excluding special items, IAC lost 2 cents per RushmoreDrive.com, a search engine focused on share. On that basis, analysts polled by Thomson the black community, rose 1 percent to $44 million. Reuters expected a profit of 1 cent per share. And ServiceMagic, which runs Web sites that match homeowners with home-improvement IAC said revenue fell 10 percent to $332 million, contractors, saw revenue climb 8 percent to $31.4 better than the $330 million analysts expected. million.

The harsh advertising climate, being felt across the RBC Capital Markets analyst Ross Sandler said the media industry, also led to declines at IAC's online overall report was pretty much what he expected. city guide Citysearch. Besides being hurt by the economy, revenue in IAC's media and advertising "The environment's tough, but they're hitting unit was decreased by IAC's decision to remove numbers," he said. "toolbars" and search boxes from non-IAC sites and place them mostly on its own sites. The IAC bought back 3 million shares during the quarter company makes more money from putting these at an average price of $15.15 per share - on its own sites, and started this shift last year after something Sandler called a nice surprise. renewing a deal through which Google Inc. sells ads on IAC sites. "If the company, having not bought back stock for a couple years, is now saying, `Our stock at these Revenue at IAC's Match unit, which includes the levels is attractive and we're finally putting money

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back to work here,' that sends a nice positive signal to the market," he said.

IAC also said Wednesday that it had acquired local restaurant guide Urbanspoon in February for an undisclosed amount. Besides operating Web restaurant guides across a number of cities, Urbanspoon offers a popular free application for Apple Inc.'s iPhone.

APA citation: IAC shares surge despite $28M quarterly loss (Update) (2009, April 29) retrieved 26 September 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2009-04-iac-surge-28m-quarterly-loss.html

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