IAC, Silverman elect for Electus

InterActive Corp (IAC) topper Barry Diller has revealed further details of his joint venture with former NBC Entertainment co-chairman and Reveille boss Ben Silverman, which is to be called Electus.

In a third-quarter earnings call with investors, Diller – the chairman and CEO of the web firm – affirmed his commitment to content production, which he said would be a core component of the business.

“Our commitment to this area is real and we’re going to invest,” he said. “In capital terms it will be a reasonably small piece – say less than 10% of our US$1.75bn in cash – and those investments will take place over the next several years.”

IAC’s emerging content businesses include sites such as CollegeHumor and Tina Brown’s The Daily Beast. “There is tremendous opportunity in media going forward, at least in our version of media,” Diller said. “We have ambitions to produce content of all lengths.”

IAC earlier this week reported a quarterly profit of US$21.3m, up considerably on the US$15.2m loss posted a year ago. However, the results include US$35m in one-time gains from the sales of Match Europe and shares in OpenTable.