Diller's IAC to Split Into Five Companies

Barry Diller's InterActiveCorp will split into five separately traded companies, their board announced today.  Former IAC components Home Shopping Network, Ticketmaster, vacation site Interval International, and online real estate site LendingTree will all become separate firms under those names. CNN Money reports that the remaining pieces of IAC will be search engine Ask.com, Citysearch, Evite, and Zwinky.

The split should invigorate investors who've recently given IAC the cold shoulder for being too complex, with shares falling 20% year-to-date. It should also end jockeying between Diller and John Malone, whose Liberty Media owns a big stake in IAC, over entities like HSN, now that it can be traded independently. Current IAC shareholders will own 100% of the new companies' stock. (More Barry Diller stories.)