IAC/InterActiveCorp operates as an interactive commerce company worldwide. The company operates a portfolio of brands in retailing; services; media and advertising; and membership and subscriptions sectors.
RETAILING
Retailing U.S.
Retailing U.S. markets and sells a range of third party and private label merchandise directly to consumers through television home shopping programming broadcast on the HSN television network; catalog services, which consist primarily of the Cornerstone Brands portfolio of print catalogs; and Web sites, which consist primarily of HSN.com and branded Web sites operated by Cornerstone Brands. HSN operates the HSN television network and HSN.com, and Cornerstone Brands operates its portfolio of print catalogs and related Web sites, and a range of retail outlets. IAC acquired Cornerstone Brands in 2005 and Shoebuy.com, Inc., an Internet retailer of footwear and related apparel and accessories, in 2006.
Merchandise: HSN features approximately 25,000 consumer products, including jewelry, computers and electronics, home fashions, cookware and kitchen aids and health, beauty and fitness products. Featured products include exclusive, third party-branded products, as well as HSN-branded products.
Cornerstone Brands merchandise consists primarily of home furnishings, products and accessories, and casual and leisure apparel, with the nature and mix of products varying by brand. In the case of Frontgate, Ballard Designs, Garnet Hill and The Territory Ahead, featured products include exclusive, third party-branded products, as well as proprietary products that carry Cornerstone Brand labels, and in the case of Smith+Noble and TravelSmith, featured products consist exclusively of proprietary products that carry Cornerstone Brand labels.
Frontgate features bed, bath and kitchen accessories, as well as outdoor, patio, garden and pool furnishings and accessories. Ballard Designs features European-inspired bed, bath, dining and office furnishings and accessories, as well as rugs, shelving and architectural accents for the home. Garnet Hill offers bed and bath furnishings and soft goods, as well as apparel and accessories for women and children, and Smith+Noble offers custom home furnishings and window treatments. The Territory Ahead offers casual apparel for men and women and TravelSmith offers travel wear for men and women and related accessories. Shoebuy.com features various selections of shoes for women, men and children available online, offering a range of shoe brands and styles in a range of materials, colors, sizes and widths, together with related apparel and accessories.
Television Programming: The HSN television network broadcasts live, customer interactive television home shopping programming 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Programming on the HSN television network is divided into separately televised segments, each of which has a host who presents and conveys information regarding the featured product, sometimes with the assistance of a representative from the product vendor. The HSN television network also broadcasts nationwide infomercial campaigns for select products, which it produces and manages, on pay television networks on a limited basis from time to time. HSN produces live programming for the HSN television network in its studios in St. Petersburg, Florida. As of December 31, 2006, the HSN television network reached approximately 89.0 million homes. Television households reached by the HSN television network as of December 31, 2006 primarily include 62.4 million households capable of receiving cable and/or broadcast transmissions. As of December 31, 2006, HSN also had affiliation agreements with 68 low power television stations for carriage of the HSN television network with terms ranging from weeks to years.
Catalog Services: The Catalogs business consists primarily of the Cornerstone Brands portfolio of print catalogs. The Catalogs business also includes three other catalogs formerly operated and managed by HSN, which feature thousands of home, yard and automotive products. Cornerstone Brands catalog presentations incorporate on-site photography and real-life settings, coupled with related editorial content describing the merchandise and depicting situations in which it might be used. Its total annual circulation in 2006 was approximately 426 million catalogs.
Online Distribution: HSN operates HSN.com, a transactional e-commerce site that serves as another storefront for merchandise featured on the HSN television network, as well as additional inventory. Cornerstone Brands operates Frontgate.com, BallardDesigns.com, GarnetHill.com, SmithandNoble.com, TheTerritoryAhead.com and TravelSmith.com, which serve as other storefronts for merchandise featured in the corresponding print catalogs, and certain other Web sites. Shoebuy.com operates Shoebuy.com, Bagsbuy.com and Outletbuy.com, which collectively offer footwear and related apparel and accessories.
Retailing International
As of December 31, 2006, Retailing International consisted of HSE-Germany, which operates a German-language television home shopping business that is broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, as well as minority interests in home shopping businesses in Japan and China.
HSE-Germany: As of December 31, 2006, HSE-Germany had approximately 19.1 million cable and 15.6 million satellite subscribers in Germany, approximately 910,000 cable and 1.6 million satellite subscribers in Austria and approximately 1.4 million cable and 300,000 satellite subscribers in Switzerland. In addition to its television home shopping business, HSE-Germany generates sales on its Web site.
Other: Retailing International has a 30% interests in Jupiter Shop Channel Co., Ltd., a venture based in Tokyo, Japan, which broadcasts televised shopping 24 hours a day, primarily live broadcasts.
SERVICES
Ticketing
Ticketing consists primarily of Ticketmaster, a provider of online and offline ticketing services. Ticketmaster and its affiliated brands and businesses provide online and offline ticketing services through Ticketmaster-owned and affiliated Web sites, call centers and independent retail outlets, serving the venues, entertainment facilities, promoters and professional sports franchises in the United States and abroad, including Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Ticketmaster also licenses its technology in Mexico and other Latin American countries. Ticketing also includes ReserveAmerica, a provider of campground reservation services and software to United States federal and state agencies.
Ticketmaster's primary ticketing Web site, www.ticketmaster.com, is an online ticketing service that enables consumers to purchase tickets over the Internet for live music, sports, arts and family entertainment events presented by Ticketmaster's clients. Consumers can access www.ticketmaster.com directly, from the Web sites of Ticketmaster's affiliates (including some IAC businesses) and through direct links from banners and event profiles hosted by approved third party Web sites. www.ticketmaster.com and related international Web sites provide local information and original content regarding live events for Ticketmaster clients throughout the United States and abroad.
Ticketmaster conducts online auctions, pursuant to which consumers bid on tickets being sold by clients through Ticketmaster and purchase them at a price equal to the highest winning bid. Ticketmaster also makes tickets available to members of official artist fan clubs and sells related fan club memberships online. Ticketmaster allows its consumers and sporting event season ticket holders to offer their tickets for resale online through its TicketExchange service.
Lending
Lending consists of businesses that offer lending and lending-related products and services, including loan settlement services, through online exchanges that connect consumers and service providers in the lending industry, other Lending-owned and affiliated Web sites and the telephone. Services offered through Lending's online exchanges primarily encompass home mortgages (in connection with refinancings and purchases) and home equity loans, as well other consumer credit categories, including automobile loans and personal loans and credit cards. Lending's businesses also originate, process, approve and fund various residential real estate loans under two brand names, LendingTree Loans and Home Loan Center (LendingTree Loans). Lending's businesses fund and close loans using proceeds from borrowings under available warehouse lines of credit. The loans funded are sold to investors in the secondary market on a servicing released basis.
Real Estate
Real Estate primarily consists of RealEstate.com, an online network that connects consumers with real estate agents and brokerages around the country, iNest, an online provider of real estate services in the case of newly constructed homes, and a proprietary real estate brokerage business that operates in eight markets. Consumers interested in working with a real estate professional in connection with the purchase or sale of an existing or newly constructed home can access online real estate-related services offered by Real Estate's businesses and complete a simple form. In the case of consumers looking to find newly-constructed homes, iNest provides consumers with a coupon that is presented to their new homebuilder, registering iNest as the real estate broker of record.
Real Estate provides various services and content through www.RealEstate.com and affiliated Web sites, such as Free Home Price Checks - an automated valuation tool that allows consumers to estimate the value of properties; Real Estate Listings - pictures and listings of homes for sale; and HouseWatch - an automated e-mail notification service regarding new home listings as they come on the market.
Home Services
Home Services consists primarily of ServiceMagic, a online marketplace that connects consumers with pre-screened, customer-rated home service professionals by way of its various patent-pending, proprietary technologies. When consumers submit a home service request through the ServiceMagic marketplace, ServiceMagic matches them with home service professionals from its network of pre-screened, customer-rated home service professionals. ServiceMagic's home service professionals collectively provide coverage for a range of home service categories, ranging from simple home repairs and maintenance to complete homebuilding and home remodeling projects. ServiceMagic also offers its patent-pending Exact Match service, which creates a one-to-one connection between consumers and member businesses. Exact Match provides a way for home service professionals to get Internet exposure.
MEDIA & ADVERTISING
Media & Advertising consists of IAC Search & Media, formerly known as Ask Jeeves, Inc., a provider of information search and related services, Citysearch, a network of local city guide Web sites, and Evite, a social planning Web site. IAC Search & Media provides information search services to computer users through Ask-Global, which consists of Ask.com and other proprietary Web sites; provides downloadable consumer applications, distributes search boxes and operates content-rich portals through IAC Consumer Applications and Portals; and provides advertising services through IAC Advertising Solutions.
Ask-Global: Search services are offered through www.ask.com and other Ask destination search Web sites, as well as through consumer applications, including toolbars and search boxes, and portals. Search services fall into two main categories, destination search services and convenience search services. Destination searches occur when an Internet user navigates directly to an Ask destination search Web site to submit the search query directly to that particular Web site. Convenience searches occur when search queries are submitted through any search box made available to the user.
Ask's primary destination search Web sites are accessible in the U.S., the U.K. and Spain through www.ask.com, and in Japan through www.ask.jp (a joint venture). Ask operates beta sites in Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands, each of which is accessible through www.ask.com in the applicable country.
IAC Consumer Applications and Portals: The IAC Consumer Applications and Portals business offers free downloadable applications that include search functionality, such as FunWebProducts, which are applications with features that are designed to make online activities more personal, interesting and fun. These features include Smiley Central, which allows users to add emoticons to e-mails and instant messages, Zwinky, which allows users to create avatars to express their persona on the Web and design and update profile pages to share with friends, and Popular Screensavers, which allows users to display their own images or videos as screensavers.
IAC Consumer Applications and Portals offers other branded search toolbars, including the MyWebSearch and MySearch toolbars. These toolbars enable users to run search queries from any Web site using search algorithms, including those of Ask destination search Web sites. These toolbars offer pop-up blocking and access to personalized portal content. This business also operates portals which have search functionality and offer Internet services, such as e-mail, portfolio tracking and message boards: www.iWon.com, an entertainment portal with a user loyalty program built around cash and other sweepstakes prizes; www.MyWay.com, a portal that is free from banner, pop-up and rich-media ads; and www.Excite.com, a content-rich portal that aggregates news, sports, weather and entertainment content. This business offers co-branded portals to third parties. IAC Consumer Applications and Portals also operates and manages Evite, which offers a free online invitation service and has listings for restaurants, bars and clubs powered by Citysearch. Evite also hosts a live event database through relationships with ticketing and event services, including Ticketmaster, and provides a number of party planning content, features and tools.
IAC Advertising Solutions: IAC Advertising Solutions provides advertisers with the ability to run their online advertisements on IAC Search & Media's proprietary portals, www.iWon.com and www.excite.com, the Evite portal and other IAC properties. IAC Advertising Solutions also offers Ask Sponsored Listings, an online marketing product pursuant to which advertisers might purchase online traffic by bidding for placement in Ask search result pages.
Citysearch: Citysearch is a network of local city guide Web sites that offer primarily original local content for major cities in the U.S. and abroad. Citysearch city guides provide up-to-date, locally produced information about a given city's arts and entertainment events, bars and restaurants, recreations, community activities and businesses (shopping and professional services), as well as real-estate related and travel information. Citysearch offers local and national advertising. Local advertising is offered through a Pay-For-Performance model. Consumer connections consist of visits to the respective Citysearch profile pages of these businesses or to their own Web sites through Citysearch, as well as telephone calls. Citysearch city guides also support online local transactions, including hotel reservations and matchmaking, ticketing and travel-related services through affiliations with e-commerce Web sites, some of which are IAC affiliated businesses.
MEMBERSHIP & SUBSCRIPTIONS
Vacations
Vacations consists of Interval International, or Interval, a membership-services company providing timeshare exchange and other value-added programs to its timeshare-owning members and resort developers worldwide. As of December 31, 2006, Interval had established contractual affiliations with approximately 2,200 resorts located in 79 countries and provided timeshare exchange services to approximately 1.9 million timeshare owners. Interval uses telecommunications systems and technologies to offer exchange and membership services to its members through call centers and through its Web site, www.intervalworld.com. Interval also makes travel-related products and services available to its members and others directly and through third party providers, as well as additional services through its Web site to select exchange members.
Personals
Personals consists primarily of Match.com, as well as uDate.com, Chemistry.com and related brands, all of which offer single adults a private and environment for meeting other singles through their respective Web sites, as well as through Match.com's affiliated networks. As of December 31, 2006, these brands and their networks serviced approximately 1.3 million paid subscribers, with Match.com operating 30 localized international dating sites in 18 languages. Match.com also offers related products and services to its subscribers, including MindFindBind, a Web-based program that intends to help Match.com subscribers design a dating action plan.
Discounts
Discounts consists of Entertainment Publications, Inc., or EPI, a marketer of coupon books, discounts, merchant promotions, gift wrap and other products. As of December 31, 2006, EPI served approximately 158 major markets and did business with approximately 65,000 local merchants and national retailers representing approximately 215,000 North American locations. EPI's Entertainment Book contains discount offers from local and national restaurants and hotels, national retailers and other merchants specializing in leisure activities. Information regarding updated offerings is available through EPI's Web site, www.entertainment.com.
EPI's Entertainment Book is sold in connection with fund-raising events, with a percentage of the sale proceeds from these events retained by schools, community groups and other non-profit organizations. EPI also markets discount membership and packages in published and online formats to consumers through online commerce, direct marketing, corporate and retail channels. EPI offers discounts through a monthly subscription product, Entertainment Rewards, which provides consumers with online access to print, click-through or code-based discounts at www.entertainmentrewardsclub.com.
History
The company was founded in 1986 under the name Silver King Broadcasting Company, Inc. It changed its name to HSN, Inc. in 1996; to USA Networks, Inc. in 1998; and to USA Interactive in 2002. Further, the company changed its name to InterActiveCorp in 2003 and to IAC/InterActiveCorp in 2004.
