IAC's Search Site Rushmore Drive Launches; More Organic Sites To Come; FiLife Stil Alive
This story was written by Joseph Weisenthal.
RushmoreDrive, the black-oriented search, news and jobs site incubated inside IAC (NSDQ: IACI), makes its debut to the world tomorrow. Tonight, the new site was feted at a stylish event at the company's headquarters. That picture on the right: next to Diller is R&B-turned-gospel singer Regina Belle, alongside RushmoreDrive CEO Johnny Taylor. Taylor offered a sneak preview of the site, and I have to say it looked rather impressive, though you can take it for a spin tomorrow.
The launch of the site is one of many in the hopper at IAC, as WSJ's Jessica Vascellaro notes this evening. Other sites include the forthcoming Tina Brown news aggregator, a tween-oriented site aimed at teaching environmental awareness, as well assurpriseFiLife.com, the company's personal finance JV with Dow Jones (NYSE: NWS), which appeared to have been left for dead. It's reportedly aiming for a June launch. Each site will have a budget of $10 million or less, according to the report.
On a related note, Vascellaro, is set to give up her stranglehold on the IAC beat in favor of the Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) beat in Silicon Valley. SAI reported so last week and she confirmed it for me this eveningyes, she's allowed in the building, despite her prominent role in the IAC-Liberty battle.
By Joseph Weisenthal