Barry Diller's Success Story

Chairman and CEO of IAC/InterActiveCorp

"We want to be able to sell you anything, anywhere, any time you want it.", Barry Diller

Barry Diller is a media mogul, best known for being in chief positions in some of the most famoust Hollywood studios. Today he serves as CEO and Chairman of IAC/InterActiveCorp with an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion. Barry Diller is also the man responsible for the birth of the companies USA Broadcasting and Fox Broadcasting Company.

Named Barry Charles Diller, he was born in 1942 in San Francisco, CA. He dropped out of college after the very first semester at UCLA. ABC hired him in 1964 where he was in charge of negotiating feature film broadcast rights. The very next year, he was promoted to Vice President of Development. It was then that he came up with the concept of 90-minute made-for-television movies called ABC Movie of the Week.

In 1974, he joined Paramount Pictures Corporation where he served for 10 years as Chairman and CEO. It was during his tenure that the studio produced blockbusters such as Saturday Night Fever and Grease starring John Travolta, the first two films of the Indiana Jones series Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and other popular movies such as Terms of Endearment and Beverly Hills Cop.

In 1984 Barry joined Fox Inc. which is the parent company of 20th Century Fox and Fox broadcasting Corporation where he served as Chairman and CEO. During his term at Fox, hits like the immensely popular The Simpons were produced. Barry served Fox till 1992. When he quited, he bought a $25 million stake in the teleshopping network QVC. In 1995, Barry quit QVC.

In 1997, Barry bought from Bud Paxson's Home Shopping Network, the assets of Silver King Broadcasting which was a group of TV stations that primarily broadcast over the air. He also bought from the Bronfman family, the rights to the USA Network. Barry wanted to convert the broadcasting stations into independently run local stations under the USA Broadcasting banner. The wanted the main flagship station to be WAMI-TV at Miami Beach, Florida. After much effort and not many results, Barry planned to sell his assets. Although The Walt Disney came forward to purchase them, he eventually sold it to UniVision. Barry however retained the Home Shopping Network. He later acquired Internet assets to support HSN. This eventually became IAC/InterActiveCorp where Barry currently serves as the Chairman and CEO. He has also been a board member of Coca-Cola since 2002.