IAC Reorganizes, Greg Blatt to become Chairman of IAC's newly-created Match Group
-NEW YORK, Dec. 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- IAC (Nasdaq: IACI) announced today that it is reorganizing and that Greg Blatt, the Company's CEO, will become the Chairman of the newly created Match Group, which will initially consist of IAC's Match businesses, Tutor.com, DailyBurn and IAC's investment in Skyllzone. Mr. Blatt will continue to report directly to Barry Diller, the Chairman and Senior Executive of the Company. Sam Yagan, the CEO of Match, will become CEO of the Group, continuing to report to Mr. Blatt, where he will focus on growing the dating businesses, leveraging best practices across the Match Group, and expanding the Match Group portfolio beyond its current verticals. Mr. Blatt will step down as CEO of IAC, and the Company does not intend to name a new CEO. Instead, Joey Levin, CEO of Search & Applications, and Kerry Trainor, CEO of Vimeo, will now report directly to Mr. Diller.
"Greg Blatt has performed superbly as CEO of IAC for the last three years," said Mr. Diller. "During that period, we've essentially doubled our stock price and increased our operating profit by over 180%. Over the last three years our areas of focus have crystallized, our management teams have developed, our reporting lines have consolidated, and Greg and I agree that a less centralized operating structure, pushing talent and decision-making closer to the businesses, is now the best way to achieve our growth objectives."
Mr. Diller added, "IAC has evolved into three principal areas of focus, and we're now organizing that way. First the Match Group, with early and later stage businesses, collectively represents a significant portion of IAC's value. Our ambitions for growth here are great, and with Greg continuing to work alongside Sam Yagan and the talented management teams these businesses have in place, I have utterly no worry that our goals will be realized. Then we have Search and Applications, which has been managed better than well for many years by Joey Levin, and we're confident in its continued success in the content and search areas. And finally we have our Media endeavors, including Vimeo under the leadership of Kerry Trainor, which we believe will create tremendous value for our shareholders going forward."
Mr. Blatt said, "It's been a great three years as IAC's CEO and I am looking forward to being able to spend more of my time helping to build the businesses in the Match Group. Sam and the team at Match are doing an outstanding job, and Mandy Ginsberg, Andy Smith and their teams are really starting to get things going at Tutor and DailyBurn. We all believe that there is a big opportunity to leverage common strengths to the competitive advantage of these businesses, as well as other premium service businesses we may yet develop or acquire. I'm also very confident in the performance of the rest of IAC's businesses, and have real faith in the management teams in place to get the job done."
Mr. Yagan said, "Since I joined Match with the OkCupid acquisition almost three years ago, the Match segment has continued to expand and now includes most of the premiere dating brands in the world. With today's creation of the Match Group, we have even grander ambitions for our future. I look forward to the ongoing collaboration with Greg to drive growth in the dating space, leverage expertise across multiple companies and expand the broader base of businesses that can be complemented by Match's operating strengths and functional expertise."
Ms. Ginsberg and Mr. Smith will continue to report to Mr. Blatt.
About IAC
IAC (NASDAQ: IACI) is a leading media and internet company comprised of more than 150 brands and products, including Ask.com, About.com, Match.com, HomeAdvisor and Vimeo. Focused in the areas of search, applications, online dating, local and media, IAC's family of websites is one of the largest in the world, with more than a billion monthly visits across more than 100 countries. The Company is headquartered in New York City with offices in various locations throughout the U.S. and internationally. To view a full list of IAC's companies, please visit our website at www.iac.com.
Contact Information:
IAC Corporate Communications
Justine Sacco / justine.sacco@iac.com
(212) 314-7326
IAC Investor Relations
Nick Stoumpas / nick.stoumpas@iac.com
(212) 314-7495
SOURCE IAC