Barry Diller of IAC/InterActiveCorp (NYSE:IACI) and Jared Kushner of Observer Media Group are a portrait of contrasts, running in opposite directions in their careers.
Diller is the grizzled media dealmaker who built a billion-dollar empire and is trying to keep it profitable; Kushner is a twenty-something newcomer with a sparse deal resume who is just trying to keep his media company afloat. So, when the two locked up in a reported transaction last week that saw IAC sell its 80% stake in e-mail newsletter Very Short List to Observer Media Group, who got the best of the deal?
Right now, it seems the two sides both won. Diller unloads a newsletter whose advertising never supported it. Should it ever become profitable, Diller still owns a 20% stake.
Kushner, meanwhile, picks up a media property, likely for a paltry price, that he can use to expand the presence of his troubled New York Observer.
Cynics, however, say that Kushner's problem is integrating a newsletter with an Observer staff that is still reeling from recently announced layoffs. Only one staffer from the original newsletter will be kept. Additionally, others point out that Very Short List's audience of 200,000 is shrinking.
As for the future, Kushner's Very Short List acquisition and rollup into the Observer may be the first of other Internet-related deals. - Gerald Magpily
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