IAC and World Domination

You may not have heard of IAC, but you've definitely heard about what IAC is doing.

Back in 2005, the Internet-focused conglomerate owned a diverse range of businesses that included Expedia, the Home Shopping Network, and Ticketmaster. All were fast-growing businesses, but they failed to work together as a coherent whole.

Over the next three years IAC streamlined, whittling down its assets to 23 businesses and more than 150 Web and media-related brands. Now, in 2012, IAC's ventures total 5.91 billion pages views per month.

IAC will continue to transform, but one thing is certain: the company isn't going away any time soon. Its two main businesses - online dating and Internet search - are thriving and show no signs of doing anything but that for a long time to come. IAC dominates the online dating industry as owner of Match.com and 30 other dating sites, and offers search services through Ask.com and a collection of apps.

IAC's two other niches are "local" services -like City-Search, HomeAdvisor, and other consumer-services-oriented sites - and media - including Newsweek/Daily Beast and Brightline, a new publishing venture. IAC is also behind Vimeo, a video-sharing service that's becoming increasingly popular. Though none of these businesses have achieved the success of Match or Ask.com, IAC isn't worried.

Combined, IAC's online dating and Internet search businesses account for around 75% of the company's revenue ($2 billion in 2011) and the bulk of its earnings ($174 million last year). With those ventures forming a solid financial foundation, IAC is free to explore many other avenues that have the potential to become extremely lucrative in the future.

IAC owes much of its success to Greg Blatt, the man who became CEO in 2010 after Barry Diller, IAC's founder, chairman, and prior CEO, left the position. Revenue at Match was stagnant before Blatt overhauled the site and launched a game-changing reality-based ad campaign. Under Blatt's guidance, IAC also acquired OkCupid, Yahoo's dating service, a Paris-based site, and a portion of China's leading dating site.

Blatt helped IAC adapt to the modern world by switching Match to an HTML5 application, making it accessible to smartphone users. Match had previously worked with Apple, but pulled the iPhone app when it felt that Apple was trying to control Match.com's customer experience. Blatt hopes they can settle their differences with Apple in the future, but for now is thrilled with the HTML5 experience.

Since 2009, IAC's online dating subscribers have doubled. Blatt counts himself among them - but so far he hasn't found love on the site. "Even Match.com can't work miracles," he told Barron's.

To find out information on IAC's top dating sites you can read our reviews on Match.com and Chemistry.com.