June 10, 2007
Barry Diller's Third Act
Lesley Stahl Profile's One Of America's Top Internet CEOs
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"We are an interactive conglomerate and we're proud of being a conglomerate, which is we operate in financial services and flirt services with Match.com, so you know, we run the gamut," Diller says.
"How much did you understand this when you started or has it been a journey to figure out what your company is?" Stahl asks.
"Of course it is," Diller replies.
Asked if he has figured it out, Diller tells Stahl, "I hope we're figuring it out. I know this now. I know now that in fact many of our businesses relate to each other."
Everything he bought was interactive, but beyond that he made it up as he went along, and is only now trying to create a sense of oneness by linking his brands together through his search engine, Ask.com. Here, you can check local listings from Citysearch, get tickets, find a date, and even buy a pair of shoes.
"We're tying location to event, to ticketing, to reviews, to all of these different things," Diller says.
He's also uniting his brands under one roof, in new headquarters designed by world famous architect Frank Gehry, not only changing Manhattan's skyline, but trying to give IAC the same kind of cache that other big internet companies have.
"Why do you think that Google is such a sexy story…" Stahl asks.
"'Cause it is!" Diller replies.
"…and IAC isn't a sexy story?" Stahl continues.
"Nobody knows from IAC. IAC is brand by brand by brand by brand. We are an endlessly multi-product company. Endlessly. So, Google is Google. Googling. Googled. All of that," Diller says. "You know, one-product companies will be known by their one product."
Asked if he doesn't want IAC to be a “sexy company,” Diller says, "Yes, would I like that? Sure. And I'd like to have ice cream every third hour. But here's the thing: I'll be quite happy to be kind of similar to Procter and Gamble, someday, which also nobody knows."
With IAC, Diller has amassed a personal fortune of well over a billion dollars. He works hard, but enjoys his time off, whether hiking, biking, or sailing on his luxurious yacht. But he says it isn’t the money that drives him. He was born the son of a wealthy real estate developer, and went to Beverly Hills High School, sort of.
Stahl had heard a story that Diller routinely skipped classes on Mondays and Fridays. He confirms that it is true. Asked where his parents were and what was going on, Diller says, "It wasn't that my parents were Britney Spears. But they had a very laissez-faire concept. And so, I had no actual supervision."
After he dropped out of UCLA, family connections got him a job at the William Morris talent agency. He worked in the mailroom. It turned out to be just the education he was looking for.
"I literally read the file room from, you know, A to Z," Diller says. "I read the entire history of the entertainment business."
The mailroom kid proved to be an innovator with great instincts about popular taste. He became a Hollywood player, churning out hits when he ran Paramount like "Saturday Night Fever," "Urban Cowboy," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and "Beverly Hills Cop."
Then, he did it again when he created Fox TV, the fourth network. He says none of this came easy. "Every single thing that I did, first I had to figure it out. Which meant, you know, I mucked around and I made lotsa mistakes. And then I would figure it out. Not that fast, by the way," Diller says.
That goes for his personal life, too. It was back in those Hollywood heydays that he first met Diane.
"I was 28, and he was 33. We were both kind of famous," von Furstenberg recalls. "He was a tycoon, and I was a little tycooness, and we were young."
After six years they broke up, but later became best friends and he became close to her children.
Then on his 59th birthday, von Furstenberg says, "I said, 'If you want, I marry for your birthday. I’ll be your gift.'"
When the New York Times announced their marriage, they called it a "merger" and said that the relationship was "assumed to be platonic."
"We married because it is the culmination of a long relationship and we have a family together. And it just felt right," says von Furstenberg, who also considers her husband her best friend.
"You're also said to be each other's closest business advisers," Stahl adds.
"We are everything for each other," von Furstenberg replies.
Asked what she thinks drivers her husband, von Furstenberg tells Stahl, "What drives him is the vision. It's definitely not the money. He has a vision, and he's not quite sure what it is. You know, and then he kind of fakes it until he makes it."
Produced by Shachar Bar-On
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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In fact, it is exactly what America needs to do, a workers strike so people like Barry can see that the unfairness has gone too far.
Leslie, you really had an opportunity to tell the extremely rich that they are inappropriate, and you missed it.
Let's not pretend that Savage Capitalism is okay, it isn't. It is ruining our society and your story made a big deal out of a unworthy figure
Its just de way I am.
Yer a record album, pal. You and yer subsidiaries can suck my nub..
When you put your name on something, thats not just your pride. That's your guarantee! "This product is something I market, and I'll put my name on it."
You people! You corporate bigwigs! You used to be something special! You used to be something to admire! Now you're running away from home.
If Leslie's interview suggests that Barry Diller feels he is a CEO for the "vision" and not the "money", then why would there be such complacency with his company's convenience charges? If Barry Diller is so concerned with Ticketmaster's vision, then why does he represent a company that collects $10 on every $30 ticket charge? Cleary Barry Diller's vision is that music fans should expect to pay a 25% sum for something unrelated to music or the venue. Is his use of words like "convenience charge" an example of this vision? This story was painted like he was a unique icon as oppossed to the stereotypical power and money hungry CEO.
Ed Green
Musician
HE Should Have never even been asked was it for money. Yes, we all work for money.(for the challenge of the impossible.) Some dream, some do. some work for those who do. Shame on America for being hard on smart men and women who actually make it and take it. He has earned it. He said during the interview he wasn't worth what they where paying him.(shame on HIM) for allowing anyone to make HIM feel bad for earning a healthy living. Everyone in the World is worth that kind of money. If people would stop whinning and give all they have and get off their duff, we would all have. We could all be happy. The Bible says there will always be poor among us. It will rain on the just and unjust. All money belongs to God. Isn't it good he allows us to keep 90% of what we earn. I live paycheck to paycheck and barely do that. So I am not a rich person defending a rich person. Americans Have created a stock exchange system that people think they should be able to invest, sit on a couch and the men and women that earn all that money for them get what the invester thinks is fair? They work 60-80 hour, week don't see their famlies. I think The system is broke. Most of those companies he ownes he didn't have to take to the stocks except for tax reasons and other things. He doesn't need you to buy his stock to live. Could you not see he loved what he did. The America system made it so he could not be a propriter.
- by blimeylimey-2009 June 10, 2007 10:49 PM EDT
- Barry is a very bright man. Good luck to him and his ideas. Of course he said the dreaded sentence - "it isnt about money". Okay. What I would like to know is how he compensates his employees. I know person totally responsible for an entire magazine. His CEO takes home a bonu;s of seven million. He doesn't get $30,000. Now that would have been a good question Lesley.
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