Iac

Media mogul Barry Diller said Friday that his Internet conglomerate, IAC/InterActiveCorp, would invest $100 million to expand in China by creating services designed for local users. Diller also said IAC would launch its Ask.com search engine in China within two years. IAC is looking for opportunities to develop or buy businesses geared to Chinese users, added Diller, IAC's chairman and chief executive. New York-based IAC's 30 Web brands include dating site Match.

IAC/InterActiveCorp, the Internet conglomerate run by Barry Diller, said Monday that it would break itself into five publicly traded businesses -- an indication that the media mogul's plan to build a multimedia empire has failed. The announcement drove IAC's shares up more than 7%, as Diller explained the split would mean the independent businesses would answer more directly to shareholders rather than being shielded by IAC.

Irvine Co. Chairman Donald Bren stepped aside Wednesday as president and chief executive of Irvine Apartment Communities Inc., a publicly traded real estate investment trust. Bren, who took the helm of IAC only four months ago, will be replaced by William McFarland, an Irvine Co. executive who resigned from that company to assume the IAC posts. Bren will continue as chairman of the Newport Beach apartment company.

Chief Executive Barry Diller ran IAC/InterActiveCorp as if he owned it and proposed a spinoff of key businesses to gain leverage in a potential asset swap, Liberty Media Corp. Chairman John Malone told a Delaware court Monday. Malone was the first witness to take the stand in the trial in Delaware Chancery court, where Internet conglomerate IAC and Liberty, its controlling shareholder, are battling over a proposed spinoff of four of New York-based IAC's largest business units, including its HSN home shopping network and Ticketmaster ticketing service.

Irvine Apartment Communities Inc. accepted a sweetened buyout bid from a company run by its chairman, billionaire Donald L. Bren, after some investors and analysts said Bren's initial offer was too low. The Newport Beach-based apartment developer said Tuesday it reached an agreement to sell the 83% of the company not owned by Bren for $34 a share cash, or $569 million. Bren initially offered $32.50 a share in December.

Forget the butler. Ask.com is playing concierge. The search engine, previously known as Ask Jeeves, today is launching a service to connect Web surfers with local business listings, movie times, events and digital maps. What separates AskCity from rival local search engines, analysts say, is the depth of information it's able to draw on from its corporate parent, IAC/InterActiveCorp.

Donald Bren, the Irvine Co.'s billionaire chairman, is taking over the publicly traded apartment company he spun off in 1993 and launching a statewide expansion into the Silicon Valley. "It's Bren's company, he founded it and he wants to shepherd it through the next phase," James Mead, chief financial officer of Irvine Apartment Communities Inc., said Wednesday. Bren has replaced IAC's chief executive, Steven Albert, a 25-year real estate veteran who joined the company in April 1995.

Barry Diller's InterActiveCorp said Monday that it has agreed to buy Internet travel discounter Hotwire.com for more than $665 million in cash in a deal that would help round out IAC's portfolio of online travel companies. If the transaction is approved by regulators, San Francisco-based Hotwire.com would become part of IAC Travel, a new IAC division. It includes two of the Web's most prominent travel reservations sites: Hotels.com and Expedia.

Saying Wall Street and banks have written off real estate investment trusts, billionaire developer Donald L. Bren offered Tuesday to buy the shares of Irvine Apartment Communities Inc. that he doesn't already own for $540 million. Bren's Irvine Co. is offering $32.50 in cash for each of the 16.6 million common shares of IAC it doesn't own--about 19% above Tuesday's closing price. The move to take IAC private was announced after the stock market closed. IAC shares closed at $27.

Man, did you see that wigwag back there? You don't see many of those anymore." "And before that, three SW8s on a local ... " "And those EMD switchers ... " "Gaviota's at 339.5, right?" I catch snippets of this conversation among four casually dressed middle-aged men. The talk is lively, spirited, friendly--and completely incomprehensible. That's because it's in the coded language of those who live and breathe railroads.