By: Mario Mancini
IAC, the digital media holding company headed by Barry Diller, is the leading bidder for Meredith’s magazine and digital businesses, in a potential deal valued at more than $2.5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported late Thursday, Varity reported.
Meredith’s lifestyle brands, focused on women-skewing audiences, include publications such as People, EW, InStyle, Shape, Food & Wine, Better Homes & Gardens, Allrecipes and Parents.
Reps for IAC and Meredith declined to comment, both citing policies of not commenting on “rumors or speculation”, according to Variety.
The deal would not include Meredith’s local TV business, which Meredith has agreed to to Gray Television for $2.7 billion. IAC has “pulled ahead of another group vying for Meredith,” which includes private-equity firm the Najafi Cos., the WSJ reported.
Diller is Chairman and Senior Executive of IAC and Expedia Group and founded the Fox Broadcasting Company and USA Broadcasting. Diller was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1994
Diller was the Chairman of Expedia and the Chairman of IAC/InterActiveCorp, an interactive commerce conglomerate and the parent of companies including HomeAdvisor, Match Group (until 2020), Citysearch, and Connected Ventures, home of Vimeo and College Humor (until 2020). IAC/InterActiveCorp is also the parent company of Tinder, Urban Spoon, The Daily Beast, and more. In 2005, IAC/InterActiveCorp acquired Ask.com, marking a strategic move into the Internet search category. He stepped down as Chief Executive Officer of IAC/InterActiveCorp on December 2, 2010.
The new headquarters for the IAC/InterActiveCorp, the IAC Building was designed by Frank Gehry and opened in 2007 at 18th Street and the West Side Highway in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. The western half of the block is dedicated to the building, which stands several stories taller than the massive Chelsea Piers sporting complex just across the West Side Highway. The extra floors guarantee a panoramic Hudson River view from Diller’s sixth-floor office.
Diller has been on the board of Coca-Cola since 2002
Since 2013, Diller has co-produced more than ten Broadway shows in partnership with Scott Rudin, including To Kill A Mockingbird, West Side Story, Carousel, The Humans, Three Tall Woman, Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, and A Doll’s House, Part 2. IAC Films has also backed numerous films produced by Rudin, including Uncut Gems, Lady Bird, Eighth Grade, The Meyerowitz Stories, and Ex Machina.
Diller was born into a Jewish household in San Francisco, California, and is the son of Reva (née Addison) and Michael Diller.
