IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI) senior vice president of M&A and finance Joey Levin is taking over as
chief executive of the company's Mindspark Interactive Network. Also moving over is IAC SVP of corporate development Mark Stein, who will become Mindspark's chief strategy officer.
The moves come as IAC chairman and CEO Barry Diller looks to add even more content to the patchwork of branded traditional and Web properties his company already owns. In announcing
third-quarter earnings, Diller said, "Our commitment to [content production] is real and we're going to invest. We have ambitions to produce programming of all lengths and for both the historical media and the Internet."
Moving senior dealmakers over to Mindspark -- which manages IAC social and entertainment Web sites including Smiley Central, Webfetti, Zwinky and Excite.com -- could mean the business is set to receive some of that investment. During six years with IAC, Levin helped spin off HSN Inc. (NASDAQ:HSNI), Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. (NASDAQ:TKTM), Interval Leisure Group Inc. (NASDAQ:IILG) and Tree.com Inc. (NASDAQ:TREE). He also worked on the acquisitions of ServiceMagic and PeopleMedia.
At the same time, reassigning C-suite deal executives to lead what has been a fairly low-profile business is unexpected. Levin was already overseeing Mindspark, and in that capacity he was likely already contributing to the unit's strategy development. Of course, as Richard Morgan notes in
Barry's way in the current issue of The Deal magazine, unexpected strategic maneuvers are nothing unusual for Diller. -
Suzanne Stevens
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