Steve Berkowitz announced in Feb. 2008 that he plans to leave Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT).  Berkowitz was the SVP of Microsoft’s Online Services Group, responsible for marketing & sales for MSN.com and Windows Live.  Before Berkowitz worked at Microsoft, he was the former CEO of Ask.com.

According to CNET, Berkowitz has joined TheLadders.com, a job search engine with a focus on $100K salaries.

“Steve is an experienced and visionary leader whose proven record of success leading online services makes him an ideal person to join our board,” stated TheLadders.com CEO Marc Cenedella.

Before Berkowitz was the CEO of Ask.com, he was COO and President of IDG Books.  Berkowitz oversaw the expansion of the “Dummies” series books and IDG’s acquisition of CliffNotes, Frommer’s, Betty Crocker Cookbooks, and Lasser’s Tax Guides.  Berkowitz attended State University of New York in Albany.

Related Links:
1. Microsoft PressPass
2. CNET via Yahoo!

IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI) has five units that make the company what it is today.  IAC CEO Barry Diller is now planning on taking these 5 separate units public, thus giving them independence from working as one entity.  The five units are IAC’s internet businesses, Ticketmaster, HSN.com, Tree.com, and Interval Leisure Group.

Starting tomorrow, these five units will start trading on a “when-issued” basis according to RedHerring.com.  The temporary symbols for the properties are IACIV, TKTMV, HSNIV, TREEV, IILGV.  The properties is expected to be fully public by August 21.  The V’s will be then dropped off from the stock ticker symbols.  For about 20 days after the spin-offs enter the market, IAC will trade as IACID.

The list of all 5 business units and their subsidiaries are available at: http://www.iac.com/businesses.html.

IAC/InterActiveCorp  (NASDAQ:IACI) has launched a How-To site that competes directly with Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Knol, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) Answers, and About.com.  The new site is called Life123.  The original name of the company was Life333.com.  Primary categories on Life123 include Beauty & Style, Celebrations, Food & Drink, Health & Wellness, Money, Home & Garden, Parenting & Family, Relationships, Technology, Travel & Leisure, and Work.

I can already tell you that the market for How-To sites is extremely saturated.  What makes Life123 distinguishable?  It’s just another alternative to other sites.  A lot of the content is provided by third party information providers, including other IAC subsidiaries.  IAC properties: Match.com, Shoebuy.com, LendingTree.com, RealEstate.com, ServiceMagic, Ask, Pronto and Reserve America are all providing content on Life 123 [paidContent].  5min.com is providing Life123 with How-TO videos. 

Life123 is launching today with 10,000 articles across 1,000 topics.  Life123 is currently looking for good writers.  The site is currently in Alpha mode.

“Part of our growth strategy includes acquisition of products and companies that complement our core competencies,” stated John Park, Presidet/CEO of IAC Consumer Applications & Portals, Inc. “Adding Girlsense.com to our existing teen targeted product portfolio provides us with broader teen mindshare, and access to the coveted tween demographic.”

The Consumer Applications & Portals, Inc. (CAP) division of IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI) has acquired StarNet Interactive.  StarNet is based in Israel and is especially known for GirlSense, a social network for teenage girls.  The price paid is undisclosed.  StartNet was formerly a part of Gteko (which was acquired by Microsoft).  StarNet raised $2.7 million in late 2006 from Leo Capital Holdings, Pitango Venture Capital, and several other investors. 

IAC CAP also created Zwinky, a virtual world for teenagers.  Zwinky receives roughly 6 million unique visitors per month.  IAC CAP also owns social network customization tools, SmileyCentral and Webfetti. 

“We are excited to join IAC CAP, a leader in Internet products and services, and to mutually benefit from the synergies of being a part of their consumer platform” stated Cathy Glazer, the CEO and Founder of GirlSense. “We believe that the experience, scale and market share IAC brings will help expand and enrich the GirlSense community.”

GirlSense has about 13 million registered users.  GirlSense has features such as My Boutique, Fashion Ave, Groups, Style, Salon, Polls, Games, Market, Mine, Connect, and Shop.  GirlSense has about 13 million registered users.  GirlSense has features such as My Boutique, Fashion Ave, Groups, Style, Salon, Polls, Games, Market, Mine, Connect, and Shop.  Games include fashion, dress-up, make-up, and arcade.

Information Source:
[1] Private Equity HUB: InterActiveCorp Press Release

Ask.com, the search engine company that is owned by InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI) has picked up a dictionary, literally. Ask.com bought the properties of Lexico Publishing Group. Lexico owns Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com, and Reference.com. With these, Ask.com’s traffic will now be 145 million unique visitors per month.

Answers.com attempted to buy Lexico properties last year, but the deal did not work out. The deal between Lexico/Answers.com was roughly worth $100 million, but Ask.com left the price of this deal undisclosed. The second most search term on Ask.com was dictionary.

Ask will use their technology to advance functionality on Lexico’s sites. Ask.com will be powering the search on these sites as well. Dictionary is a top key search on Google, Yahoo!, and Live too.

In related news, Barry Diller, CEO at InterActiveCorp has resolved his differences with Liberty Media Corporation. Liberty Media owns 30% of IAC and they wanted to spin off some of IAC’s businesses as single-tier businesses.

IAC/InterActiveCorp owns excite, MyWay, iWon, excite, Evite, Bloglines, Zwinky, insiderpages, CollegeHumor, GarageGames, Vimeo, Busted Tees, gifts.com, Entertainment.com, BagsBuy.com, Shoebuy.com, LendingTree, Match.com, Admission.com, and Ticketmaster.

Information Source:
[1] Associated Press:  Ask.com acquires Dictionary.com, other references by Michael Liedtke

IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI)’s Ticketmaster stated yesterday that they would acquire TicketsNow for $265 million.  TicketsNow is a website where consumers can buy tickets for events such as the NFL Playoffs, Hannah Montana, and musicals.

eBay also was rumored to be looking into the acquisition of TicketsNow.  But eBay also recently acquired StubHub for $310 million.  TicketsNow’s first round of funding was $8 million around the middle of 2006 from DFJ, Portage Venture Partners, and New World Ventures.  Then the $8 million turned into equity as the company raised $35 million last year, led by Adam Street Partners.

As Ticketmaster’s contract with concert promotion company, Live Nation Inc. ended recently, Ticketmaster wanted to seek additional revenue streams.  Live Nation is starting their own box office for ticket sales.  Live Nation was a previous subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications.

Fortune 500 American media company, InterActiveCorp operates 60 brands, employs 20,000 employees, and has its fair share of interesting headlines.  All of IAC’s web sites attract 680 million visitors.  IAC is also the largest buyer of online advertising.  IAC’s 60 brands keeps the company’s dazzling, spectacle headquarters glowing:

[image source: IAC press release]

Yesterday, Liberty Media Holding Corp. International bought 14 million shares of IAC/InterActiveCorp from a single holder.  And then IAC bought 6 million shares of its own stock from that same single holder.  This brings Liberty Media’s ownership of IAC to 30%.

IAC gave their Internet property, Ask.com a major marketing overhaul.  Jakob Lodwick, co-founder of Vimeo, parted ways with IAC after a disagreement with the company’s management recently.  And today I read that IAC may be close to acquiring Flixster.

Flixster is a social network centered around movies.  According to TechCrunch, either the deal is done or is “very close.”  The deal is rumored to be potentially around $150-$200 million.  One of Flixster’s primary traffic drivers is its Facebook Application.  Flixster raised around $2 million from Lightspeed Ventures and other angel investors.  The social networking company is based in San Francisco, Calif.