Barry Diller, the head of IAC/InterActiveCorp, thinks the market for Internet companies is priced well above what they are truly worth.
If Yahoo does decide to start bidding aggressively for FaceBook, with a possible price tag up around a billion dollars, don’t count on Diller to try matching that bid.
Instead, the IAC CEO said his company isn’t buying what would-be acquisition targets are selling, according to a Reuters report:
“We don’t see anything big to buy,” Diller told the Reuters Media Summit in New York. “We think that prices right now for most things Internet … are very overpriced at various stages from early capitalization to venture capital stage.”
Regarding another popular social networking Web site, Facebook.com, Diller said he thinks the company is not up for sale.
“My take is, much to his credit, I don’t think he (Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg) wants to sell it. I doubt he sells it. Now, someone may put an astronomical check in front of him, but that’s just my take,” Diller said.
Diller passed on MySpace and watched as Rupert Murdoch ponied up $580 million for the social networking site. He wouldn’t mind a $300 million to $400 million deal, particularly for “virtual retailers.”
The MySpace investment has paid off for Fox Interactive Media, though, as Google agreed to a $900 million deal to place its search and advertising on the site. That’s not a bad return on investment, as even Diller would have to admit.
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David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business.
