Less than a week after filing a lawsuit to stop Ticketmaster parent IAC/InterActiveCorp from breaking up the media company into separate divisions, Liberty Media and its billionaire owner John Malone are now trying to get IAC CEO Barry Diller and others booted from their own Board of Directors.
The move points to the bitter feud brewing between Malone and Diller, and it could affect the future of Ticketmaster because the ticketing giant could end up with a different owner.
Liberty Media owns a significant portion of IAC/InterActiveCorp and reportedly opposes the spin-off plan in part because it would dilute Liberty’s voting privileges on the board. Supposedly, Liberty is interested in acquiring Ticketmaster but with its recent acquisitions Ticketmaster is an even larger, more expensive takeover target than it was just this past fall.
Ticketmaster’s aggressive spending spree and subsequent foray into the secondary ticketing market, which also includes ticket reseller deals with the NFL and NHL, all occurred after Diller and company announced plans to spin off divisions, a move that Ticketmaster hopes to complete by the end of the year.
According to the Associated Press, Liberty filed papers in Delaware Chancery Court seeking Diller’s removal from the IAC board, in addition to Diller’s wife designer Diane von Furstenberg and Seagrams heir Edgar Bronfman Jr., among others.
(The image accompanying this story is from Wired.com)
