Some comments made by IAC’s Diller at the Q3 conference call sounded to listeners as though he would be open to a sale of the Ask.com holdings. According to Reuters:
“We’ve been asked a lot whether we’re open to consolidating transactions in the area of search. The answer is yes,” Diller said. “And, it is unlikely that we would be the consolidator.”
While Diller added “you cannot really make any absolutes” about deals he did admit that Ask.com faced a challenging environment in a search business.
A later report from Reuters seemd to indicate that Diller had done a one eighty, rebuffing advances from various parties (rumor has it AOl was interested) and backing off his earlier suggestions:
“The people who called us were on exploration missions, on a stand-alone buy as an asset. That is different than having conversations with other people in the vineyard, in the area of search,” he said at the Reuters Global Media Summit in New York on Wednesday.
The Reuters article went on to quote Diller again:
“I think further consolidation in search is necessary given Google’s dominance,” Diller said.
Diller also said he has had ongoing conversations with AOL about partnering in areas including search and local online services, but characterized the discussions as “idle chat.” He said IAC was not interested in acquiring AOL.
He dismissed the notion of buying one of the major social networking sites, like Facebook, as a stand-alone company, saying that they have yet to find ways to produce a profit.
“I think Facebook is a great community and certainly going to have value,” he said, but added that it was unlikely to emerge as the next Google… “Large asset buying, I think, is dicey right now,” he said.
“Our economy right now has got issues all over the place. The two most important pieces of it are unemployment, which is going to probably get worse, and the financing of our commitments.”