Diller Takes Stand in Liberty/IAC Suit

WILMINGTON, March 14:
Barry Diller, the chief executive of IAC/InterActiveCorp, took the witness
stand in a Delaware court yesterday, defending his plan to break up the
company.

Diller is at odds with
longtime business partner John Malone, the chairman of Liberty Media, which
owns 30 percent of IAC. Malone argues that the separation of IAC into five
different companies—including the HSN home shopping network and the
Ticketmaster service—would dilute his voting control at the organization.
Although Liberty owns just 30 percent of IAC, it controls 62 percent of the
voting power.

Earlier this year, IAC
filed suit against Liberty, seeking a ruling that Diller’s proxy gave him the
right to vote for the spinoff. Liberty Media countersued, seeking the
termination of the proxy granted to Diller and his removal from the board.

Taking the witness stand
yesterday, Diller said the plans to divide IAC are “in the interest of all of
those invested” in the company, the New York Times reports.

He acknowledged strained relations
with Greg Maffei, the chief executive of Liberty Media, and admitted to being
unhappy with a piece in the Wall Street Journal in October where unflattering comments were made
about him by Maffei and Malone.

“While I don’t want to
overreact to Malone’s proddings,” Diller reportedly wrote to IAC’s vice
chairman, Victor A. Kaufman, soon after the piece was published, “I’m beginning
to think we ought to spin one class of stock.”

Diller said on the witness
stand: “The principal reason for doing these spins is to concentrate and focus
on IAC” and allow the individual companies to “prosper on their own.”

—By Mansha Daswani