Just Wondering: With all that’s going on, will Barry Diller's planned website for black people still fly?

BY SDH Last April IAC/Interactive Corp, made the announcement that they were working on a website geared towards African Americans. A name was never revealed or even a tentative launch time. However since the announcement we haven't seen or heard anything related to the project. IAC CEO Barry Diller has since been tangled in a back and forth with IAC shareholder and some say his boss John Malone about the direction of the company. The battle may even see Diller exiting if John Malone gets his way. But what’s the deal with the black web project. Was it quietly scrapped getting lost in the shuffle of the ongoing battle between Diller and Malone, or is it still on track for a launch?

Operation Regime Change

BY SDH Barry Diller built IAC Interactive Corp via acquisitions of profitable web properties bringing them under one roof to form his internet holding company which is home to well know web destinations like, Expedia.com, Match.com and more recently collegehumor.com. But if you ask us, Diller may have just been put on notice by Liberty Media boss John Malone who holds a reported 30% stake. During an interview late last year, Malone said that he no longer thinks Diller brings value to the company. Now Malone is acting on this statement by trying to kill the Diller era. In a bold but expected move, Malone asked a court for the go ahead to force Diller out, and perhaps hand the CEO title to a younger more energetic fresh thinker from within or outside the company who will perhaps bring that value Malone claims Diller lacks? Diller has to be feeling the Neuse tightening around his neck. Clearly Malone and company are congregating on IAC’s borders for a full scale attack with the objective of regime change at IAC. But will Malone’s potential invasion be unilateral or will he bring others on board? Malone is not known for raiding corporations and forcing change like the Suge Knight of corporate America Carl Icahn. But he carries more weight than many of the CEOs of the companies he holds shares in. When Malone upped his stake in IAC, Liberty Media claimed at the time, they upped their stake in IAC to take advantage of IAC’s low stock price. But only an idiot would buy that. If Barry Diller were to look out his office window through binoculars, he will see Malone and his troops looking right back at him through their binoculars just waiting for the right time to take the kill shot. Rupert Murdoch came out alive from a possible Malone attack, will the same happen for Diller?

John Malone takes bigger chunk of Barry Diller's world

-BY SDH One of the most powerful men in media, John Malone is hardly written about and gawked at by mainstream media, but we doubt he gives a shit. He is arguably the most powerful known unknown in the biz and has the power to make even the biggest of them run for cover like the time he had Rupert Murdoch shaking in his pants. Now Malone's Liberty Media holding company has swallowed 14 million shares of the Barry Diller ruled IAC/Interactive Corp for $339.5 Million upping Liberty's stake to about 30%. Could Malone have taken a bigger chunk if he wanted, or does Diller have some Rupert Murdoch like, poison pill in place to block such a move? Stake Is Bought in IAC/InterActiveCorp [NYT]

QUICK NEWS: John Malone into body building

Liberty Media, which is controlled by media wild card John Malone is set to announce that it has acquired a controlling stake in Bodybuilder.com for $100 million. No word on why the interest in the site but we're sure it has to do with traffic which must be huge for that price tag. -SDH

John Malone, Ticket Master?

-YOSH John Malone is is probably the most under rated when it comes to the power he holds in the media business. He has made other powerful media bigs like Rupert Murdoch run for cover. Now he is said to be interested in Barry Diller's TicketMaster.com. And why wouldn't he be? The site reportedly sold over $7 billion in tickets last year. However that number may drop when Live Nation, the biggest concert promoter, drops Ticketmaster.com in favor of it's own ticket sales system. Liberty CEO Gregory Maffei says his company has been unable to swing a deal for Home Shopping Network—which Liberty would like to merge with its QVC discount shopping business—because IAC has set the price too high. At the 35th annual UBS Global Media & Communications Conference in New York on Dec. 3, Maffei mused that Liberty may now focus on Ticketmaster, the dominant name in ticket sales. Maffei said Ticketmaster "has a great business" that would mesh well with Liberty's entertainment assets, which will expand substantially in the coming weeks if Malone's deal to buy the DirecTV (DTV) satellite service wins federal regulatory approval as expected. John Malone Eyes Ticketmaster [BW]

John Malone is what you would call a cock blocker, but he isn't necessarily blocking cocks

-MARTY It seems like every time a media company wants to make a move, they have to go through John Malone first. Rupert Murdoch had to throw him a bone to hold him off from attempting a takeover of News Corp, now Barry Diller, Chairman of Internet company Interactive Corp (IAC) will have to throw him a thick piece of stake to distract him so he can split IAC into five publicly traded companies. We will call him "The Media Sheriff" It looked like a master stroke. IAC Interactive (IACI) Chief Executive Barry Diller announced that his collection of Internet companies will be separated into five public companies. Diller, long a Wall Street darling, hopes to use the deal to restore some of the luster lost by his business in a year of sliding shares. The tactic appeared to be working. IAC's stock price jumped 7.5%. But the announcement is only the first step in what could be a messy, protracted battle with IAC's largest shareholder, John Malone's Liberty Media (LCAPA), owner of a 24.1% stake. Under the terms of a long-standing arrangement with Malone, Diller controls and votes Liberty Media's shares in any deal. Still, in order to see the breakup through to its fruition, Diller will probably need to offer some concessions to Malone, the Liberty chairman who has publicly suggested he wants out of the arrangement. In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Malone dissed Diller, saying, "There was time when there was, I think, a 20% Barry premium" on Wall Street. He added: "Today you could argue there is a Barry discount." The upshot is Malone and Diller will probably have some serious talks in coming weeks before Diller can finalize his plans, several sources say. We don't know but it seems as though John Malone may be the most powerful man in media. He had Rupert sweating bullets and now Barry Diller has to sweet talk him into letting him split up IAC? We have a list coming so lets see who comes out on top! IAC: Breaking Up May Be Hard to Do [BW]

All Hail: King Rupert just got even more Kinglier

-SHOMARI HINES Rupert Murdoch may have finally gotten John Malone off his back for good. Rupert and Malone's camp agreed some months ago that they would do a swap deal which would see John Malone's Liberty Media taking control of Direct TV in exchange for Liberty's very threatening 16.3 percent stake in News Corp. The exchange will fluff up the Murdoch family’s stake in the News Corporation to 38 percent, from 31 percent, resulting in worry free days and nights and care free walks without having to look over their backs. “Murdoch solidifies his family’s voting control and helps the stock with the huge effective share buyback,” said David C. Joyce, an analyst at Miller Tabak & Company in New York. The transaction, which needs approval from the Federal Communications Commission, may be completed by midyear, the companies said in December.Liberty will get a 38.5 percent controlling stake in DirecTV, the largest American satellite TV company, and three local Fox sports channels. Liberty will also receive $588 million in cash, up from $550 million under the initial December agreement. Hmm, wonder how long FCC Chairboy Kevin Martin will take on this one? News Corp. Shareholders Accept Liberty Deal [NYT]

Liberty Media sues Disney via its Starz Network

-SHOMARI HINES Another lawsuit is born, this time between John Malone's Liberty Media and Disney. Liberty Media's Starz Network is accusing Disney of double dipping and probably wants the mouse house to pay up for breaking a 2005 licensing agreement. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, was brought by Starz against Disney's Buena Vista Television, which this year signed deals to sell movies on Apple Inc's iTunes online store and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s new movie download site. Starz sues Disney over movie downloads[Reuters]

John Malone's New Challenge, Making Direct TV Hot

So John Malone took Rupert Murdoch's bait and settled with taking over Direct TV in exchange for his once threatening stake in News Corp. But the real challenge for the media investor is finding new content for the satellite giant, and maybe applying the technology that allows DTV subscribers to order a pay per view movie when they want instead of having to wait for a fucking start time. OK we went off track a bit right there. Anyway Malone may have found his answer in CableVision's Rainbow Media Holdings. Liberty Media Chairman John Malone is in preliminary talks to acquire Cablevision's Rainbow Media Holdings, which houses movie channels AMC and WE. "They are talking," a senior executive close to Mr. Malone told Advertising Age. "It's the only suite of programming available to purchase. There are a lot of one-offs but there's nothing except Rainbow." Sounds kinda boring but good luck with that Johnny. With DirecTV Deal Done, the Next Need Is Content [Ad Age]