IAC Starts to Recapture Some Ground (IACI, OPEN)

IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IACI) seems to be recapturing some of its mojo.  The online content and online destination and search company noted that asset sales did help profits at a time when advertising revenues were slow.  The company earned $21.7 million or $0.16 EPS (made $0.34 EPS on an adjusted basis) and revenue fell by 9% to $337 million.  We had Thomson Reuters estimates at $0.13 EPS and $334.9 million in revenues.

The company’s media and advertising unit revenues from the Ask.com and the Citysearch online city guide fell 11% percent to $172.3 million.

IAC’s Match unit revenues were off by about 13% to $81 million, but this was said to be due to no revenues from Match Europe that the company sold in June.  The number of paid subscribers in the Match unit showed a gain of 5% to 1.4 million members.

ServiceMagic was a gain in operations that connects homeowners with contractors, where revenue rose about 30% to $43.9 million.

Other third quarter items were a $36.2 million pre-tax gain related to the sale of OpenTable, Inc. (NASDAQ: OPEN) and a $15.4 million increase in the pre-tax gain on the sale of Match Europe.

In the last quarter the company repurchased 5.6 million shares at an average price of $16.69 per share and is still authorized to repurchase up to 21.5 million shares.  IAC’s quarter-end balances had about $1.8 billion in cash and marketable securities and $95.8 million in long-term debt.

While this is not a robust sudden return to flying growth, things do seem to be better than had been in prior quarters and the stabilization is starting to be seen.  So far we have shares up 1.3% at $19.60 in pre-market trading indications.

Jon C. Ogg
October 27, 2009