Barry DIller is reaffirming his central role in leading InterActive Corp., the diversified digital company he founded in 1995.
In a broader announcement about finalizing a plan to spin off a stake in home services platform Angi to IAC shareholders, the company said Joey Levin, who had been IAC’s CEO, will become executive chairman of Angi. Technically, no new CEO will be named.
After the management shuffle and spinoff was revealed after the close of trading, shares in IAC jumped 5% after hours.
Diller, whose previous stint as CEO ended in 2010, had already been serving as chairman of IAC. The company’s largest holding is Dotdash Meredith, publisher of People, Southern Living and other outlets once controlled by Time Inc.. It also owns all or part of a range of other digital businesses and has fostered a number of companies that went on to become independent entities.
IAC CFO and COO Christopher Halpin and Chief Legal Officer Kendall Handler will report directly to Diller after the spinoff, which is expected to be completed in the first half of 2025 but no sooner than March 31. Angi CEO Jeff Kip will continue to report to Levin and Angi’s board of directors.
Although some time has passed since Diller’s illustrious run as head of production at Paramount and then as linchpin of Fox as it became the fourth U.S. broadcast network, he remains a revered industry sage. Separate from IAC, he last year considered making an offer for Paramount Global before Skydance Media’s bid prevailed, reflecting later that he had pursued it out of “duty rather than desire.”
In New York, the 82-year-old Diller has remained a significant public figure. Along with wife Diane von Furstenberg, he is a fixture at the Met Gala each spring and funded the $265 million “Little Island,” which opened in 2021. The redeveloped Pier 55 on the Hudson River features distinctively landscaped grounds and performance spaces.
In the IAC announcement, Diller said Levin “has wanted a store of his own for some time and the spinoff of Angi affords him this opportunity.” The exec will remain an advisor to IAC for years to come, Diller emphasized.
“As we approach yet another milestone, IAC does what it does best: evolves. Joey Levin has been an exemplary leader of IAC, creating significant value during his nearly decade-long tenure as IAC CEO,” he said. “Over the last few years Joey has been deeply and personally invested in the transformation of Angi, and with its full independence can drive the company to expand any which way he, Jeff Kip and Angi’s Board desire.”
Levin said he considered himself “among the luckiest in the world to have spent the past two decades working with and learning from Barry Diller and the many brilliant minds he has always attracted to his orbit.”
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