Just when you thought the era of dot-com overvaluation was long gone, Barry Diller and his IAC/InterActiveCorp demonstrate just how much loose change there is out there for a nothing-but-flash website. IAC agreed to acquire search engine Ask Jeeves for $1.8 billion in stock, in a bid to enter the search wars.
Almost $2 billion for an entrenched also-ran that, regardless of how much money/resource it gets, will never come close to challenging the Googles and Yahoo!s of the online world. Granted, it’s not a cash purchase, but it’s still a colossal waste. I understand the concept of buying into an established operation, and such purchase candidates are limited. But give me a break — I don’t care how many dinky licensing partnerships Ask Jeeves has, it doesn’t come close to such a high valuation, especially when IAC was likely bidding against itself.
I guess I shouldn’t complain. If this move sparks a rise in the online property market, I can soon command a cool million for this site.
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DILLER’S DISINTEGRATION OF IAC…
Gee, I didn’t see this one coming. Acknowledging that he’s cobbled together the corporate equivalent of a Frankenstein’s monster, Barry Diller announced that IAC/InteractiveCorp will be split into five separate companies, in order to …
Trackback by Population Statistic — 11/05/2021 @ 10:52:36 PM