york city 2012 formerly called hsn inc. 1996 1998 usa networks inc. 1998 2002 usa interactive 2002 2003 interactivecorp 2003 2004 type public traded as nasdaq iac industry internet predecessors silver king communications founded august 24 1995 ; 21 years ago 1995 08 24 headquarters iac building new york city new york united states area served worldwide key people joey levin ceo products interactive online revenue us 3.23 billion 2015 operating income us 179.6 million 2015 net income us 119.5 million 2015 total assets us 5.21 billion 2015 total equity us 2.22 billion 2015 number of employees 5 000 january 2015 website www.iac.com iac interactivecorp also known as iac is an american media and internet company with over 150 brands across 100 countries 1 headquartered in new york city . 2 joey levin who previously led the company s search & applications segment 3 has been the company s chief executive officer since june 2015 . 4 contents 1 history 1.1 1980s and 1990s 1.2 2000s 1.3 2010s 2 businesses 2.1 match group 2.2 publishing 2.3 applications 2.4 video 2.5 homeadvisor 2.6 other 3 corporate affairs 3.1 board of directors 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit 1980s and 1990s edit iac was established in 1986 as silver king broadcasting company as part of a plan to increase viewership of the home shopping network hsn by purchasing local television stations . 5 6 by 1988 silver king had bought 11 stations for about 220 million . 6 the company was later renamed as hsn communications inc. and then silver king communications inc. 5 in 1992 silver king was spun off to hsn shareholders as a separately traded public company . 7 in august 1995 barry diller acquired control of silver king in a deal backed by the company s largest shareholder liberty media . 8 9 diller who had led the creation of the fox network reportedly hoped to use silver king s stations as the foundation for a new broadcast network . 9 in december 1996 silver king acquired an 80 % stake in hsn for 1.3 billion in stock and changed its own name to hsn inc. 10 11 12 at the same time the company acquired savoy pictures a failed film studio that owned four fox affiliate stations through sf broadcasting for 210 million in stock . 13 the company acquired several assets in the late 1990s . hsn purchased a controlling stake in ticketmaster group in july 1997 14 and then acquired the rest of the company in june 1998 . 15 16 in february 1998 it acquired the television assets of universal studios including usa network sci fi channel and universal television s domestic production and distribution arms for 4.1 billion . 17 18 the company s name was changed to usa networks inc. at this point . 18 continuing its acquisition strategy the company acquired the hotel reservations network in may 1999 for 149 million . 19 20 usa networks merged the online division of ticketmaster with city guide website citysearch in september 1998 establishing a new company that went public as ticketmaster online citysearch tmcs . 21 22 usa then sold ticketmaster proper to tmcs in 2001 retaining a 61 percent share in the combined company which became known as simply ticketmaster . 23 24 usa brought ticketmaster back under full ownership in 2003 purchasing all outstanding shares . 25 2000s edit in the early 2000s usa networks began divesting itself of its traditional television broadcasting and production units . in may 2001 univision communications acquired usa broadcasting a division of usa networks including 13 local stations . 26 the next year vivendi bought the rest of usa s broadcast entertainment businesses including the usa network and sci fi channel . 27 this led to the creation of a new company named vivendi universal entertainment led by diller . 28 throughout this transition usa networks continued to build up its online portfolio . in july 2001 the company entered the online travel business with its acquisition of expedia 29 followed the next year by an acquisition of interval international . 30 following the shift in focus to online assets the company changed its name to usa interactive in may 2002 ; 31 interactivecorp in june 2003 ; 32 and finally to iac interactivecorp in july 2004 . 33 in august 2003 iac acquired the online mortgage comparison site lendingtree 34 and in september the company added discount travel website hotwire.com to its growing list of acquisitions . 35 in october iac agreed to buy french travel site anyway.com from transat a.t. for 62.7 million . 36 in 2004 and 2005 iac continued its growth through acquisition adding assets including tripadvisor 37 servicemagic 38 and ask jeeves . 39 it also launched gifts.com during this period . 40 in august 2005 the company bundled together its travel related sites and spun them off as a new public company expedia inc. 41 additional acquisitions in 2006 included shoebuy.com 42 and collegehumor . 43 in may 2008 iac and ask.com acquired lexico the owner of dictionary.com thesaurus.com and reference.com . 44 in august 2008 iac spun off several of its businesses including tree.com formerly lendingtree the home shopping network ticketmaster and interval international . 45 2009 saw the acquisition of urbanspoon 46 and people media 47 and the launch of production company notional . 48 in july 2009 iac partnered with ben silverman to create electus a company focused on multimedia production and online distribution . 49 2010s edit iac s long time largest shareholder liberty media exited the company in 2010 following a protracted dispute over the 2008 spinoffs . 50 51 liberty traded its iac stock for 220 million in cash plus ownership of evite and gifts.com . 50 on the same day diller stepped down as ceo though he remained as chairman with a 34 % voting stake in the company ; match.com ceo greg blatt was appointed to succeed him . 50 in 2010 iac acquired dating site singlesnet 52 and fitness site dailyburn . 53 in february 2011 iac acquired the free to contact dating site okcupid for 50 million . 54 in april 2011 iac extended its deal with google originally worth 3.5 billion to hand over all search advertising on ask.com and other iac search products through march 31 2016 . 55 on february 14 2012 barry diller introduced aereo an internet television service . in march 2012 in new york city aereo started streaming all of the broadcast networks to smartphones tablets and televisions with internet capability . 56 on june 25 2014 in a 6 3 opinion the u.s. supreme court ruled against aereo . the court found that aereo infringed upon the rights of copyright holders . 57 on august 26 2012 iac acquired about.com from the new york times . 58 in january 2013 iac acquired online tutoring firm tutor.com . 59 on august 3 2013 iac sold newsweek to the international business times on undisclosed terms . 60 in november 2013 iac acquired investopedia and pricerunner from valueclick . 61 on december 22 2013 iac fired their director of corporate communications justine sacco after an aids joke she posted to twitter went viral 62 being re tweeted and scorned around the world . 63 the incident became a byword for the need for people to be cautious about what they post on social media . 64 in january 2014 iac acquired a segment of valueclick s business including investopedia and pricerunner . 65 later that year in august iac acquired askfm for an undisclosed sum . 66 in january 2015 iac sold urbanspoon to zomato for 52 million . 67 in june 2015 iac announced its intent to pursue an ipo of match group 68 which officially filed documents for an initial public offering on october 16 . 69 shares of match group mtch debuted on the nasdaq on november 19 and finished that first day up 23 % from the initial public offering price of 12 . 70 on july 14 2015 the dating service plentyoffish was purchased for 575 million in cash to become a part of match group . 71 on december 9 2015 iac announced the creation of iac publishing a unit that combines the daily beast about.com dictionary.com and investopedia into a single operating group . 72 on january 21 2016 iac announced a realignment of its reportable segments and a change of its ticker symbol to iac from iaci . 73 in march 2016 iac completed the sale of pricerunner to ns intressenter ab a swedish private equity firm . 74 on may 2 2016 iac s vimeo announced the acquisition of vhx a platform for premium over the top subscription video channels . 75 businesses edit in january 2016 iac categorized its businesses into distinct segments for the purposes of financial reporting . those segments are labelled by the company as match group publishing applications video homeadvisor and other . each business listed may have multiple brands connected to it . 73 match group edit blackpeoplemeet.com chemistry.com delightful friendscout24 howaboutwe match.com meetic group okcupid ourtime people media plentyoffish the princeton review tinder tutor.com twoo publishing edit about.com ask.com citygrid dictionary.com investopedia the daily beast applications edit apalon ask applications slimware video edit collegehumor dailyburn electus iac films vimeo homeadvisor edit homeadvisor other edit shoebuy.com corporate affairs edit board of directors edit iac s board of directors consists of the following members 4 barry diller chairman victor kaufman vice chairman edgar bronfman jr. director chelsea clinton director michael eisner director alexander von f rstenberg director bonnie hammer director joey levin director bryan lourd director david rosenblatt director alan spoon director richard f. zannino director see also edit companies portal references edit iac crunchbase . crunchbase . retrieved 2015 01 08 . our brand locations . iac . retrieved 2014 01 28 . joey levin iac . iac.com . retrieved 2015 12 16 . a b iac interactivecorp leadership of iac from company website . iac . retrieved 2015 12 16 . a b form 10 k annual report report . hsn inc. april 14 1997 . p. 3 via edgar . a b james greiff july 4 1988 . cable tv broker has a new vision . st. petersburg times via newsbank . hsn completes silver king spinoff . the roanoke times . december 30 1992 via newsbank . diller is cleared to take control of silver king . new york times . 1996 03 12 . retrieved 2015 01 08 . a b geraldine fabrikant august 26 1995 . return of the fox . fort worth star telegram via newsbank . martin peers december 19 1996 . silver king annexes hsn . variety . retrieved 2016 02 13 . mark albright august 27 1996 . hsn is acquired as deal is revamped . st. petersburg times via newsbank . form 8 k acquisition or disposition of assets report . silver king communications . december 23 1996 via edgar . diller to take over savoy home shopping . upi newstrack . november 27 1995 via newsbank . hsn with 50.1 % has controlling stake in ticketmaster . new york times . 1997 07 30 . retrieved 2015 01 08 . kevin shinkle march 11 1998 . usa networks gets deal after boosting bid for ticketmaster . fort worth star telegram . bloomberg via newsbank . form 10 k annual report report . usa networks inc. march 24 1999 . p. 3 via edgar . barry diller is no visionary but ... . fortune magazine . retrieved 2015 01 08 . a b hsn adds to tv fare ; is renamed . the tampa tribune . february 13 1998 via newsbank . usa networks to acquire hotel reservation network . biz journals . retrieved 2015 01 08 . form 10 k annual report report . usa networks . march 2 2000 . p. 69 via edgar