Expedia to trade publicly on its own

NEW YORK, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- InterActiveCorp, which includes U.S. travel business Expedia, will spinoff the online travel unit in a tax-free move to be completed by July.

Barry Diller, who founded IAC in 1995, built the conglomerate up into a blend of 42 companies, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Expedia now accounts for about 30 percent of IAC's revenue and 55 percent of its operating income.

IAC will continue to own TV shopping channel HSN, Ticketmaster, Citysearch, a local search service, and LendingTree, an online finance company.

IAC hopes to put an end to the chronic confusion surrounding the company's various businesses and, thus, boost the share price of IAC, the newspaper said.

Existing IAC shareholders will get one share of Expedia for each share of IAC they own, under terms of the tax-free deal expected to be completed in the second quarter of next year.