The IAC Story: Building and Spinning Off Internet Brands

Tinder, Investopedia, Match.com, Vimeo, Angi, Ask.com, and People magazine. These brands have almost nothing in common except one thing: at some point, they were all owned by IAC.

IAC Inc. does not build companies to keep them. It builds them, scales them, and spins them off as independent public companies. Over three decades, IAC has generated four major public company spin-offs, with a combined market capitalization that has dwarfed the parent at various points.

This post traces how IAC built that model, what it currently owns, and what the pattern of its spin-offs reveals about how digital brands are built and separated.

What Is IAC?

IAC Inc. is a publicly traded American internet holding company headquartered in New York City. The company trades on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol IAC. As of early 2026, IAC's primary operating asset is Dotdash Meredith, the largest digital and print magazine publisher in the United States.

IAC's origins trace to Silver King Communications, a television broadcasting company built by Barry Diller in the early 1990s. Diller transformed it through a series of acquisitions, buying the Home Shopping Network in 1992 and renaming the combined entity USA Networks. Subsequent acquisitions brought in Ticketmaster, Hotels.com, and Expedia. In 2005, Diller separated the travel businesses into Expedia Group and retained the internet businesses under IAC/InterActiveCorp, shortened to IAC.

Barry Diller remains the controlling shareholder, holding voting control through a dual-class share structure. Joey Levin served as CEO through 2024 and was the architect of much of IAC's current portfolio structure.

The Spin-Off Machine: IAC's Core Model

Understanding IAC requires understanding the spin-off playbook that has defined the company's strategy since the mid-2000s.

The sequence works as follows. IAC acquires or internally develops an internet business that has scale potential. It invests in growth, often funding losses in the near term to accelerate user acquisition. Once the business has reached a size where it can operate independently and has demonstrated financial viability, IAC distributes shares to its own shareholders via a tax-free spin-off. The spun-off company trades on public markets as an independent entity. IAC retains focus and capital for its remaining businesses and typically acquires new ones.

This model has produced four major public companies:

Expedia Group (spun off 2005): Became one of the largest online travel platforms. Expedia Group now owns Expedia, Hotels.com, Vrbo, and Orbitz.

Match Group (spun off 2015, full separation 2020): IAC launched Match.com in 1995 and built a portfolio of dating apps including Tinder (launched internally in 2012), OkCupid (acquired 2011), Hinge (acquired 2018), and Plenty of Fish (acquired 2015). Match Group was taken public in 2015 and fully separated from IAC in 2020. Match Group is now a standalone NASDAQ-listed company with over $3 billion in annual revenue.

Vimeo (spun off 2021): IAC acquired Vimeo in 2006 for approximately $200 million and built it into a software-as-a-service platform for professional video creators. Vimeo was spun off in 2021 as a standalone public company.

Angi Inc. (spun off April 2025): IAC merged HomeAdvisor and Angie's List in 2017 to create Angi, a marketplace connecting homeowners with home service professionals. In April 2025, IAC completed the spin-off of its remaining Angi stake.

Dotdash Meredith: The Current Core

Following the Angi spin-off in April 2025, IAC's primary operating asset is Dotdash Meredith, the digital and print publishing business formed through IAC's 2021 acquisition of Meredith Corporation.

Dotdash was IAC's existing digital media publishing portfolio, which had been built through acquisitions of About.com (rebranded as Dotdash in 2017) and a collection of informational websites including Investopedia, The Balance, Verywell Health, Verywell Mind, TheSpruce, and AllRecipes. These sites operate on a performance model, earning revenue primarily through search traffic and display advertising rather than through subscription or paywalled content.

The 2021 acquisition of Meredith Corporation for approximately $2.7 billion added a substantial print and digital media portfolio including People, Better Homes & Gardens, InStyle, Entertainment Weekly, EatingWell, Travel + Leisure, and more than 30 other magazine brands. The combined Dotdash Meredith entity became the largest digital publisher in the United States by traffic in several key lifestyle and health categories.

The integration of Dotdash and Meredith has been complex. IAC has shut down print editions of several former Meredith magazines, shifting focus to digital-only formats, and has restructured the business around performance-driven digital content rather than the legacy print advertising model. Dotdash Meredith generated approximately $1.8 billion in revenue in 2024, representing a meaningful decline from the combined pre-integration revenues as the print business contracted.

The Ask.com Era and What It Reveals

Ask.com (originally Ask Jeeves) was one of IAC's most significant assets during the mid-2000s. Acquired in 2005, Ask.com was the fourth-largest US search engine at the time, trailing Google, Yahoo, and MSN. IAC spent more than $100 million annually on television advertising at the peak of its Ask.com investment.

It did not work. By 2010, Ask.com's search market share had declined to low single digits. IAC stopped investing in it as a competitive search engine and retained it as a question-and-answer content site and Google search affiliate. The brand was eventually sold.

The Ask.com failure is useful context for understanding IAC's model. The approach works best when the businesses it holds have network effects or structural competitive advantages that compound over time. Dating apps (Match Group) and informational content (Dotdash) fit that pattern. A search engine competing directly against Google with no structural differentiation does not.

IAC's Investment in MGM and Other Holdings

Beyond Dotdash Meredith, IAC holds a minority stake in MGM Resorts International, acquired in 2020 for approximately $1 billion when MGM's stock was depressed by COVID-19's impact on casino revenues. That investment has generated significant unrealized gains as MGM's stock recovered.

IAC also holds early-stage technology investments through its corporate venture arm. These are generally smaller and less visible than the operating businesses.

As of early 2026, IAC is focused on stabilizing Dotdash Meredith's revenue as digital advertising markets remain competitive and print revenues continue declining. Further spin-offs remain possible as the company identifies businesses that have reached the scale and maturity to operate independently.

How IAC Compares to Traditional Media Companies

IAC's approach to media brands is different from traditional publishers like Hearst or Conde Nast, which hold their magazine brands indefinitely and build competitive advantage through print circulation and long-term advertiser relationships.

IAC treats media brands as performance assets. Value is measured in organic search traffic, engagement metrics, and advertising revenue per page view. The Dotdash model involves aggressive SEO, content reformatting to match search intent, and removal of editorial formats that reduce engagement. Critics argue this approach prioritizes algorithm performance over editorial quality. IAC's position is that performance-driven publishing is the only sustainable model in digital advertising.

The integration challenges at Dotdash Meredith reflect the genuine tension between those two philosophies. Legacy print brands like People and Better Homes and Gardens were built on advertiser relationships and circulation trust that SEO optimization does not automatically replicate.

The Bottom Line

IAC has generated Expedia, Match Group, Vimeo, and Angi as standalone public companies through its spin-off model. The approach works when businesses have network effects that compound. It fails when they compete head-on against dominant incumbents with no structural advantage, as Ask.com demonstrated.

As of 2026, IAC is Dotdash Meredith. Whether another spin-off follows depends on whether that business reaches the scale and stability that IAC's model requires.

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Frequently Asked Questions About IAC

What does IAC own in 2026? As of early 2026, IAC's primary operating asset is Dotdash Meredith, the largest digital and print publisher in the United States with brands including People, Better Homes & Gardens, Investopedia, Verywell Health, and AllRecipes. IAC also holds a minority stake in MGM Resorts International.

Is IAC publicly traded? Yes. IAC Inc. trades on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol IAC. Barry Diller retains voting control through a dual-class share structure.

What companies has IAC spun off? IAC has spun off Expedia Group (2005), Match Group (full separation 2020), Vimeo (2021), and Angi Inc. (April 2025). Each became an independent publicly traded company following the spin-off.

Does IAC own Match.com and Tinder? IAC founded Match.com in 1995 and created Tinder internally in 2012. Both brands are now owned by Match Group, which was fully separated from IAC in 2020. IAC no longer holds a stake in Match Group.

Who controls IAC? Barry Diller, the media executive who built IAC from Silver King Communications in the early 1990s, controls IAC through Class B super-voting shares. Despite holding a minority of the economic interest, Diller retains majority voting control over the company.

Explore Related Brands

• Investopedia - Financial education site, part of Dotdash Meredith
• Vimeo - Video platform, spun off from IAC in 2021
• Dotdash Meredith - IAC's primary operating company
• People Magazine - Celebrity news brand owned by Dotdash Meredith

Browse all Media & Entertainment brands

Sources

1. IAC Investor Relations — https://ir.iac.com 2. IAC Q4 2025 Earnings Release — https://ir.iac.com/news-releases 3. SEC EDGAR: IAC Inc. 10-K Annual Report — https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar 4. IAC Spin-Off of Angi Press Release, April 2025 — https://ir.iac.com 5. Wikidata: IAC Inc. — https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1641068 6. Bloomberg: Dotdash Meredith acquisition coverage — https://www.bloomberg.com

All brand ownership data verified through WhoBrands.com research. Last verified: March 2026.