Barry Diller, after losing a six-month, US$10 billion hostile bidding contest for Paramount Communications Inc in February 1994, threw in the towel and issued a terse press release.
"They won. We lost. Next." Diller has rarely stopped making his next move. He tried unsuccessfully to buy the CBS television network in 1994 and was thwarted in a US$6 billion bid for Internet search engine Lycos Inc in 1999. Beginning with a TV station group in 1995, he acquired more than 20 businesses -- USA Network, Home Shopping Network, Expedia, Ticketmaster -- and then sold some of them to Vivendi Universal SA last year for US$10.3 billion.
The 60-year-old Diller is now about to enlarge his media empire. He was named co-chief executive of Vivendi's US units, putting him in charge of the world's largest music business, a movie studio, theme parks and a video-game maker. The move raises investor and analyst expectations that the second-largest media company will split off its US operations.
"I see this as another step toward the complete spinoff of Universal-Vivendi and one that will put Barry Diller where he's always wanted to be -- in complete control of a world-class media empire," said Porter Bibb, a veteran media industry investment banker who now runs consulting firm Technology Partners (Holdings) LLC. "He's getting closer and closer to that day." Diller currently heads Vivendi Universal Entertainment, with its Universal film and TV studio, theme parks and the USA and other cable-TV networks. Diller also is chairman and CEO of New York-based USA Interactive, which has an US$11-billion-plus stock market value and owns Home Shopping Network, Ticketmaster and other Internet properties.
Vivendi spokeswoman Anita Larsen and USA Interactive spokesman Ron Sato declined to comment.
"Clearly, Vivendi is casting about to find a way to get these assets under astute management," said Richard Read, an analyst at Credit Lyonnais Securities Inc who rates USA Interactive shares a "buy" and doesn't have a rating on Vivendi.
"They're the first to admit that they don't know how run some of these businesses." Diller, on the other hand, has a long and storied media career.
"He has moved mountains in the past," said Harold Vogel, head of Vogel Capital Inc and a longtime Wall Street media analyst, who doesn't own Vivendi or USA shares.
Frank Husic, managing partner at Husic Capital Manage-ment, which owns USA shares, said: "The guy has a lot of savvy and he's a proven entity. He's a guy who can." Diller grew up in the shadow of Hollywood, the son of a wealthy Beverly Hills real estate developer. He dropped out of college at UCLA to embark on an entertainment career, starting in the mailroom of the respected William Morris Agency.
At 26, he moved to the ABC network, where he's credited with coming up with the "movie of the week" concept. He rose to vice president in charge of prime-time programming before moving to Paramount Pictures in 1974, a troubled studio that he turned around as CEO with a string of successful movies including Grease and Saturday Night Fever. Diller then moved in 1984 to 20th Century Fox as chairman and chief executive, where he led the studio's risky effort to start a fourth US broadcast television network for the studio's parent, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
Diller quit Fox in 1992 to become an entrepreneur, saying he was turning 50 and no longer wanted to work for someone else. He chose QVC Network, a home shopping service, as his first platform.
He said he saw a bright future in interactive television and shopping.
QVC was also a platform for Diller to go after big media properties. In 1997, he bought most of Seagram Co's Universal Studios TV assets in a complex transaction valued at more than US$4 billion.
In December 2001, almost 10 years after striking out on his own, Diller returned to Holly-wood, agreeing to work for Vivendi's then-Chief Executive Jean-Marie Messier, 15 years his junior and new to the entertainment industry. Messier's Vivendi had recently acquired Seagram, and Diller was named chairman of the company's Vivendi Universal Entertainment, including the studio, theme parks and cable networks.
Messier was ousted last summer and CEO Jean-Rene Fourtou, a former drug company executive, is now looking to Diller to oversee all of his US media businesses, including Universal Music Group and a video-game unit.
That would put Diller closer than ever to heading an entertainment empire rivaling those of his former bosses, such as Murdoch and the late Martin Davis, former chairman of Paramount, investors said.
Some investors are concerned about how Diller would divide his time between Vivendi and USA.
It is "going to be an obvious concern," says Andrew Rittenberry, an analyst at Gabelli Asset Management Inc, which owned 2.18 million Vivendi Universal American depositary shares on June 30, according to regulatory filings. The firm also owned 5.91 million USA Interactive shares in June.
"He's been doing these dual roles since winter and there's been no problem so far," Rittenberry said, adding that he wants more details.
Husic, the fund manager, said that if Diller is put at the helm of Vivendi's US assets and the company is spun off, he'd be interested in buying its shares.
"The idea is very exciting," Husic said.
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