Online ad improvement seen in IAC‘s 4Q loss

By RACHEL METZ, AP Technology Writer Rachel Metz, Ap Technology Writer – 42 mins ago

IAC, which is run by media billionaire Barry Diller, said Tuesday its net loss amounted to $7.94 per share in the last three months of the year. This compares with a net profit of $227.4 million, or $1.57 per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Excluding one-time items, the company earned 20 cents per share — 2 cents more than analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected.

Even as IAC wrote down the value of its search business, overall the company appeared to be reversing some downward trends.

The turnaround is consistent with recent results from IAC‘s peers that signal that the online advertising market is improving. Online ad leader Google Inc. reported fourth-quarter ad revenue grew 17 percent. Yahoo Inc. reported a 4 percent drop and AOL Inc. an 8 percent drop, but those declines were less than those logged during the first three quarters of the year.

In IAC‘s Match business, which consists of dating sites like Match.com and Chemistry.com, revenue dropped 6 percent to $83.3 million. IAC said the decline was due to absence of Match Europe, which was sold last June. Match‘s number of paid subscribers rose 3 percent from a year earlier to 1.4 million.

Revenue declined 5 percent to $1.38 billion in 2009, from $1.45 billion a year earlier.

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