IAC Plans Buyback

IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI) posted a third-quarter profit gain and set a plan to buy back 60 million shares.

The New York-based online conglomerate made $75 million, or 24 cents a share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30, up from the year-ago $68 million, or 20 cents a share. Excluding certain items, earnings rose to 35 cents a share from 32 cents a year earlier. Revenue rose 11% from a year ago to $1.6 billion.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were looking for a 33-cent profit on sales of $1.61 billion.

The company said revenue for the quarter reflects a modest increase in domestic retailing with flat revenue from HSN. The services sector continued to benefit from strength in ticketing, but was negatively impacted by market conditions in lending. Continued growth at Ask.com contributed to strong revenue performance in the media and advertising sector. Overall, revenue in the quarter reflects increased year-over-year contributions from every sector within IAC.

"We are unabashedly building an interactive conglomerate," said CEO Barry Diller. "We have three interrelated strategies: one, the growth of each of our businesses; two, Ask.com as the connecting thread; and three, all our cross company efforts which allow us to leverage our audience, scale and diversified expertise."

IAC repurchased 12.4 million shares at an average price of $25.79 during the quarter. IAC said its board authorized it to repurchase up to 60 million shares of its outstanding common stock, which is in addition to the 8.8 million remaining under the prior authorization.

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