Ad Age just published their conversation with IAC head honcho Barry Diller, in the wake of the splitting / spinning IAC is doing with its properties (IAC is spinning off four divisions into separate publicly traded companies). Putting aside the series of softball questions and cookie cutter answers the one real interesting part of the whole conversation revolved around Barry’s interest in AOL. Here is how the brief AOL exchange went down:
Ad Age: Are there sizes of acquisitions you’d rule out?
Mr. Diller: Never. We’d never rule anything out. … I don’t want to set the world up for surprises. We’ve tended to surprise people every year with something. So I hope there’ll be a few more, but hopefully not shock.
Ad Age: There’s still talk that Jeffrey Bewkes could break up Time Warner. Would you ever be interested in AOL?
Mr. Diller: We’ve talked over the years about our interest in AOL and never been able to get Time Warner to engage with us. I’ve always said AOL is great opportunity for somebody. When and if Warner doesn’t want it, I’ll certainly be at the door.
So why is this so interesting? Of course IAC, and any online focused company would be interested in AOL and in fact AOL’s deep list of properties combined with solid traffic and relatively efficient adverting models would fit perfectly into Mr. Diller’s future / current online plans. All IAC needs is a nice influx of cash in order to offer an amount Time Warner couldnt refuse to get AOL off their hands…oh wait isn’t that what IAC is planning? Mr. Diller has shown over the years that he loves brand names and what brand is bigger then AOL (well at least one he can afford to buy)?
Regardless of whether or not IAC buys AOL it is safe to say that someone, somewhere, will snap it up. AOL has been dragging down Time Warner for years and I am sure that sooner or later AOL will be sold off – my guess would be 2nd or 3rd quarter of 2008 at the latest.
