Good? You know, wherever you like. We could stand, we can, that's good.

Whatever you, whatever you would like. I'm your guest. You said, I could ask you anything. No speaker at this event has actually said that to me except for you. What a great invitation. But, I wonder whether I should say FU at the beginning of this or wait for you to provoke me.

I prefer you get it out of the way up front, and then we can, you know. Alright then.

You had to bring that up.

Consider it said.

All right. There went all the soft balls. Okay, lets jump right in. Google or Facebook? Who's the biggest threat to internet freedom? Well I don't think either are a threat to internet freedom. I think the only thing that's a threat to internet freedom is the possibility that we won't have net neutrality. That we won't have it actually clarified into law, or rule, by the FCC, which I think would be a tragedy for everybody who participates on the internet.

So, that's the danger. The danger is, that you've got telecommunication forces that have always captured distribution.

T his is the first time, miracle, that we've got distribution absolutely press a button, publish it and a consumer gets it. That's a miracle. We have to protect it and telecommunication companies, cable companies, Telcos, et cetera, want to do, of course, what they've a lways done which is be on the...be there with a toll bridge taking tolls and controlling it. We don't got that now. We should make certain we'll never have it. Do you...first of all, yes, I agree. Do you think... I'm sorry, I want to do one more thing. Thank you.

That's a crowd-pleaser right there. That all of you have to get out there and start arguing for this strongly. We have a Republican opposition to this that says don't make any rules for anything because you will inhibit investment. which is, of course absurd, the return that the cable companies are getting on their internet is enough to make investment in whatever amounts are necessary.

So, we've got opposition to it and we don't have enough energy from people who are absolutely, it is their next -- it is the lives of you all and the people are coming after you who you gotta go protect now.

What's at stake?

So, I'm sorry, I don't mean to be whatever but nevertheless.

No, I like it when you do that.

What's at stake? Is American competitiveness in technology at stake? Is it just good, the good -- What's the good of the people, what is it? Why does it matter so much on a big scale? It matters, first of all, I mean, there are two parts of this. One part is we've got to unleash the FCC which is now kind of bogged down in this -- everything that's bogs everything down in our dysfunctional government but the FCC has got to get broadband much more or developed in the United States, be competitive with the 16th in the world. It is shameful, we are the leaders in the world. Obviously in technology, it is almost all of our invention that has spurred all of the developments and technology all over the world.

We've got to get broadband more developed in this country. We've got to get infrastructure done. The FCC's got to be unleashed to do that. They've got to get passed this net neutrality in order to do so. I believe because I think otherwise they're gonna, they're among almost hostage to all of the stuff that's going on. So that's why I think it's important.

What about search neutrality? How related is it to net neutrality and how do you think about search neutrality?

Well I think search neutrality, you know, and net neutrality to me is absolutely on the side of the Angels.

Yeah.

The search neutrality is not necessarily. Search neutrality right now essentially says that as essentially Google continues to I don't know if the right word develop it's businesses is accurate. But as Google begins to get vertically integrate. Sorry, to vertically use search.

Yeah.

In areas that pretty much they left to other people who were in those businesses. Up comes the issue of, all right, search neutrality. Should any search engine be able to buy us the results for its own surfaces? I don't think that's an issue. I don't think that's an issue of natural law, I think that's an issue of anti-trust law. And at some point that will be dealt with if it has reached the stage where it's deserving of being dealt with. I don't have any exposition on it. I have vested interests. Absolutely, I want search to remain as neutral as possible because my companies fill lots of those verticals. I don't want them infringed upon by the search mechanism but that's the best of interest.

You've been bullish on, correct me if I'm wrong. You've been bullish on the iPad and the opportunities it creates for the media industry as a whole. Do you think, just with that in mind, is there a long term future for a paywall in, you know, with news and media's websites? Sorry, I don't know how to sit on this thing.

I don't know either. I've tried that position. It didn't work out for me. Well.

But you are Barry Diller, we can have a whole noon ensemble brought up.

Could we? Right now? Probably yeah, yeah. I'll stop here. I'm fine here.

Actually, but we can . It would be fun to try.

So, what was it? Where were you?

I know you can't work under these conditions. It would be uncomfortable. We're gonna actually have chair brought up.

Oh, no no. I'm fine.

We were gonna talk about, I'd like one too, but we were gonna talk. We were talking about the iPad.

Oh, the iPad. Yes.

I was on the corner, you made a statement about.

Okay. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah, I want you to say there is a future and then I wanted to react to that statement so.

Good. I absolutely believe, I think there is this this early mythology created by the tech side that the internet is free in terms of content because the tech people couldn't have cared less at about contacting the content in the early days. I think that's the content in the early days. I think that's an absurd concept. I think commodity content is not worth very much or something, but it's not worth very much. The premium content is worth what the consumer will pay for, and I do believe the consumer will pay for it. I think that the iPad is and devices like that are enablers and I think over the next, you know, years No, I'm sorry. I'm wasn't to that. They're bringing up a better chair.

Oh, I thought you were swatting. Oh, no, I'm not using it. Oh, t hank you. No. This is really embarrassing that you 2...

No, no. It's just kinda cool that we could do it. Let's go, let's just

No. I'm not going.

Okay, we'll just leave it there.

All right. You can look at it as

That is more comfortable though. Well. Yeah, but I sit there where you sit on the floor. Ain't that appropriate?

Yeah, I know we'd figure it out Let's go back to this loosing argument that you're building about

Yes. How you pay, I'm think paid, media paid?

Yes, yes, yes. What do you mean, I just said? You just said I was losing.

You said Premium content

You didn't say why.

C harge for. They pay wall that will work.

Well, I think pay. Look.

The Daily Beast for example.

Yes.

How do you charge for that? advertising support.

Okay. So it's not premium content as you defined it?

No. The Daily Beast is premium content the more market yet doesn't exist for it. Do I think this will happen? Yes I absolutely do. I think content over a period of time. Once you get mechanisms where it's really easy to pay for it work once you get subscription systems and other things that are very easy for people to do, like iTunes, etc,.

I think paid content is gonna line up right in there next to iTunes, and other pay forms, and be paid for. And I do think eventually Daily Beast will absolutely up to revenue stream It will allow the advertising revenue, and it will have the subscription revenue.

Yeah. any idea? Like, what do you think the time line for that, over the next couple of years, or decade or longer? All this models from emergence...

I would say 3, 5 years.

Okay. Okay.

How about cable television? Does that have 3 to 5 years left? Or longer?

Well, I don't think it's gonna go away. Do I think that it's going to have increasing competition from online TV, IP-TV, whatever you wanna call it?

Of course I do. I think it's already happening. You look at cable subs, and you look at the very, very early trends. Pardon me?

What does the data show there, actually?

The data of shows very, very, early trends across the board, of really the first time cable sub losses. Small numbers. Yeah, but it's the start of the thought...

But I do believe that over time. You know, we still don't have, I mean, we don't really have but a handful of large screens, home screens hooked up to the internet. And that's gonna take a few years to get out there.

So right now I think it's essentially people who on smaller screens, whether there iPads or whatever are saying 'You know what? I like, it's okay watching my programing on this. I don't need a homogenized, I don't need to pay 1 monthly amount for 89, 142 channels I couldn't care less about'. I'd rather just get it this way, through Hulu or whatever. I think, you know, that's gonna happen.

Who in the audience, raise your hand if you don't have cable subscription or satellite at home. I mean, sometimes this is an early trend but I mean this is you know, seriously.

That's shocking.

Raise your hand if you don't have a home phone like copper line.

And that's beyond shocking.

Yeah. Yeah.

You are not normal Americans. Is there actually

Which will maybe leading where normal Americans will go. Twitter , you haven't been bullish on Twitter in the past.

I know.

What do you think about Twitter?

I don't think . Here's the thing. I don't think much and I think it has less to do with my sense of the value of things necessarily. Then just personally, it's just, it's not something - I tried a little bit Yeah, and it didn't, it wasn't of any.
It didn't stick.

It didn't go anywhere with me, and I admire it for its ability to break instant news in short burst, Allah Hudson plane crash. I think that's an unbelievable thing. B ut I don't, I just don't think of it as for me a great communication form though I know a lot of people use it. My wife, you know, not really to my liking at all, will Twitter what we're doing often in our lives and people will say to me and, I will say, "Huh? From where did you..?" And then, of course, it was the fact that but, then, she's a brand.

Yes, so I guess it's forgivable.

Would - I mean, would you own it if they gave it to you? I mean as of thinking just purely as a business, like...

No. But that's not because I don't think it's necessary to gonna make revenue. I don't think it's the easiest trick to get revenue out of. But, I don't want to own anything that I'm not really interested in. And that doesn't necessarily mean I'm a user but, I'm not... we own Match.com and...

Well that's a perfect segway.

I haven't been dating in a while.

Well, you also own Swinky, right? I can imagine that you touched that recently.

Oh no, I love Swinky.

Is that because you cannot uninstall it from your computer.

Oh.

I'm sorry that's the only dig and that was for the Carol Bartz DFU thing .

You can uninstall it from your computer in one easy step.

How much do you have to pay? Tp get out. You must be joking. Match.com, you brought it up. I know it's a big business for you. It is.

Is Match.com, does it compete with Facebook. Is it relevant in a Facebook.

Well, you know.

Yeah. I was thinking about this lately, I don't know why, but I thought, you know, what is the ultimate if you would think of a social network .

Yeah.

It would be Match.com, I mean social network?

Yeah.

Okay, dating leading to dating leading to whatever. What is more social than that. I have no response, yeah. So , there you are.

So you feel good about that over the long term in the next decade? That business been growing?

Yes, business has been steadily growing. The problem is your users get married, and then you know presumably their.

Here's the amazing thing about Match, it does get a lot of people married. It really does. Amazingly so, I think most of you and most people that I know say to me and it goes with --

Who's been Match.com founder?

This is funny because they're all alike, right? Seriously, has anyone met their match on Match.com in this audience? MG, I know you did. Come on, at least raise your hand.

That's embarrassing. All of you, you know -- Not being normal Americans --

They were being honest with --

Many of you were lying.

How can you expect --

Politely said. Barry, to be honest with you, if you won't be, you know, honest with him.

Anyway, here's the deal, it marries a lot of people for sure. Secondly, what we -- I just learned this very recently which is the people who come in and out of Match, 50% of the people who lead Match, come back to Match.

Now, this is common, of course, on your success in whatever dating life they have.

Yeah.

Or in their fidelity life or in something, but Match users come in and out. They get a relationship and that relationship has an arc, and then they're back. So.

Which is good. For us it's perfectly fine. We know this. For sure, it is a benefit and use to an enormous number of people. It does exactly what it's supposed to, and I don't think anything is going to invade it.

You know, a couple more questions. Would you like to take questions from the audience as well, are you open to that?

If they have, sure.

If you are, go ahead and line up at the mic. I'll take probably two questions.

Sure.

In a bit, in a bit. In a bit. That was just completely random. So, Groupon. Force, like permanent force or something just sort of crazy that will just turn into an ad unit that lots of people. Is it something that you really are thinking about.

No, I think like many things that happen you say, when HBO came or when Google came, permanent force are not. Their question is there's no...to me there is no question that what Groupon does is gonna grow because it's a very good system for getting deals, bargains, instant. Let's call it, you know, group buy. Whether Groupon does that or someone else will take it, I don't know. They've done a damn good job up until now. There are lots of...I mean, I think they have a new competitor every hour. So, this is not a hard area to get into.

I t's always nice when the...for th e world when the bars are very low to competition rather than high. In this case they're low but Groupon has done a really good job j ust in this early period of not only maintaining but growing and getting, you know much more hyperlocal, I noticed.

We'll take questions in a second, but my last questions is what, and this is the fun question is, what are the big problems that we need to solve right now that entrepreneurs should be thinking of? I mean, not the obvious stuff like faster chips, but if you , what are the things that people like on the horizon should be worried about right now that they can fix? You mean in technical terms?

The mobile in local in, you know, like what should, you know. Is mobile huge opportunity.

No, if I were looking today at where green field opportunities are.

Yeah. I would say it is absolutely in, well I don't know, we don't even have a word for it. I mean, we call it mobile, we call it WiFi, we call it SmartPhone, whatever it is. we call it mobile, we call it WiFi, we call it SmartPhone, whatever it is. But to me, that's absolute green field. That is gonna be, I would say over the next, God knows, it's gonna be, that's essentially the next big revolution.

Does it feel like desktop computing so, in say 1984 or '85. Is that, it sort of feels that way to me.

It is, I think it is. I - look, I notice - I'm, look, the old of old hands at this and, I started early, but there was no earlier than '95.

And I'm finding, I never believed that, I kinda was very early at laptop and lost desktop kind of long time ago. But I never believe anything would replace that for me.

Yeah.

And I am finding... that't why I really do have this, I've always had an emotional pull towards these inanimate boxes which I only understood because they're warm to me, because they're hot, because they're such communication things and, so that's emotional for me.

Yeah.

But I never thought that I would adapt so quickly to this iPad, that I would be so...

Yeah.

I would be so endearingly, you know, fond of it, stroking it. Now, I get ridiculous just for fun, but no the tactile experience, the ubiquity of it, the fact that it has of course we all use to read books.

I then went to the Kindle. I thought the Kindle was fantastic and I mean, I think Jeff Bezos is done a fantastic job without him there wouldn't be, but just for me, I like the experience of reading on an iPad. And the idea that in any configuration I'm reading passively. Yeah.

And, I hear my little ping and with one little touch, I'm looking at an email deciding whether I want it or back. It's so friction free to me.

So what we've see on these videos popping up of 3 years old and even 1 year old being handled an iPad and getting it immediately and that's we've call these the best advertisements for the devices, you know, that Apple could ask for because it's just people get it.

Oh, for sure.

Yeah.

Well, it's more impressive for an old person to get it to me but I'm biased.

There's a question written on a napkin?

Yeah. On a napkin? Rumored. Who wrote this?

So, some news just broke that you're gonna be resigning as C hairman of Live Nation.

Would you...

Are you resigning as Chairman of Live Nation today? No. What happened is we had a board meeting yesterday and I told the board that as they all knew, when we put Live Nation and Ticket Master together, I said that I wasn't really gonna do this long term, that I wanted to shepherd the merger together, get it so that was working. I'm on 5 boards. I'm chairman of 2 in which I have significant interests I don't have significant interests in this Live Nation company shareholder. And I always said that I was gonna do so yesterday. I told the board that no rush, no harm. But towards the end of the year we should come up with a new chairman.

And we all thought that that made sense and I left the board meeting, and an hour later I can't imagine anything else. One of the directors leaked it.

Why? I can't fathom or...

Who was it? That leak who was it?

Uh, well. Get them.

I actually don't know, but the list of possibles are extremely small for any smart person to figure out. It's no bad thing. I don't really care if they did. It wasn't It wasn't uh, it's not appropriate I mean I, I think boards that - that don't have the integrity of their deliberations are are a very bad business but it ain't gonna cost any harm. Can we talk about Yahoo then we'll...

Sure. I'll ask you the same question I asked Jeff Weiner. Carol Bartz, will she leave before the end of the year or after the end of the year? I know it's a heavy stop-beating-your-wife question but, what do you think? I haven't... truthfully and honestly, first of all, it's an importunate question. Yeah.

However, I would say I have nothing to say about it. I have no opinion whatsoever.

What if you owned Yahoo?

I have no interest.

You have no interest in you owning Yahoo?

No, I have no interest in the subject.

Like. Okay, actually that you said it all. We have a question, and I think it's Don Dodge from Google. Yes it is.

Yeah. Mr. Diller, what is your plan for the future of ask.com?

Future of Well, you know, what I'd hope would happen hasn't. We bought Asks 5-years ago, I had thought them that if you really innovated and brought to what I think was a ecstatic world meeting. A world that in which there wasn't any scening innovation that the consumer could see. That you could compete and you could gain share and so ask start it out, making all this innovation whether it was smart, you know, search where you could or you can get a smart answer right there of whether it was left rail, related topics or whatever. We did all of that. Everybody who saw it said, God, that's really great and we have a bump, but then of course, everybody copied us and Google was at that time on the verge but not there yet of becoming a verge and we didn't gain share. I don't think we're going to gain share. Now we've held it which, actually, is to me a bit of a miracle in itself but, it's not what we intended. But, we have kinda held our share.

We have a new concept. I don't know whether it will work or not but, you know, I ask this always over index in natural languid questions. So, we are doing a massive change instead of really general searching.

It would be asked natural languid questions, and we'll give you not only a good answer from a factual data but, from community data and all those other things.

So, I think that there is a course in which we could be competitive. Not competitive to Google. Frankly, unfortunately, nobody is competitive to Google now.

But hopefully we can then, in each way, provide a decent service. Barry, do you think...

That would be the comprehensive answer.

Sorry? Do you believe that Ask is worth more as a separate public company or as part of IAC, or as part of another company? As part of who?

I don't know. Part of another company. Well, you can never tell if it's worth more as part of another company, 'cause you don't know what that other company would do with it.

But as a stand alone, I don't think it would be no . The truth is it has no value inside IAC. So, I would think that it might have value standing alone. Because, if you do some of the parts of IAC, as against private market value of any of these assets. And I would say particularly Ask, I don't think anybody describes any meaningful value to Ask.com. So...

You... Valuable growth business in IAC? I don't know. We have so many businesses and so many new businesses. I mean, if you look at one side of it you would say Vimeo from a very small base, because Vimeo is growing like crazy, delivers an absolute differentiated service than YouTube does. And if it works out, if it continues, this community continues, this continuing community, I think would join who want one p lace to go where you can do videos and protect them and have them be presented in great HD, have them be stored perfectly, have them be sent to whoever you like them sent too, wide, small, whatever, and use the Vimeo tools 'cause Vimeo i s really inherently a subscription service. Vimeo has huge potential to me, but it's starting from a very small base. Daily Bees has huge potential to me I mean, I could riff on much too long about the stuff that's got big runway in front of it. If you talk about the established businesses, t he growth we've seen again in Match has been enormous. If you look at our Mindspark business where we roll out, you know, I think we've rolled out 220 new toolbars in the last month or two. We have a 100 million download toolbars in existence. That's pretty... from I don't know, a third of that a few years ago. So that's growing like crazy.

Talk a little bit about the transition that Citysearch h as had from Citysearch to city good media. It really seems to become now a platform for powering local advertisers.

It is.

Talk a little bit about that.

It always...we started Citysearch thinking we could tame local advertising one content area by just having a ton of local content and we maintain an audience for that and that's okay.

But the truth is that what we evolved into was called CityGrid, and what's seems very puffy and I'm not wearing little puff.

I can have somebody come and take care of that for you.

Well just gonna live with what I got. It evolves CityGrid is a a service that has tons of publishers over here, huge number of publishers, and over here as all sorts of advertising and advertising reseller. Advertising sellers, AT&T, etc., and all the R box are in this spot over here along with everybody else who spoke and advertise them, putting our own sales force context etc.

And in the middle, we figured out this machine that takes the ads and the publisher's sites and mixes them in an efficient way and delivers to the advertiser confirmation that whatever they've wanted has happened, either a phone rang, or a costumer walked in the door, etc. So, it's many years later, we've invested a lot of money but it has evolved into something that took a long time to get it together but works, and is getting real lift now. It has a chance to be a real leader in organizing local, kind of a last frontier of what you could try and organize on the internet.

I think... And then, we'll take one last question and then we'll let you go. Do you think Tim Armstrong and AOL, do you think they're a winner there or a loser? With patch or with...

The whole company.

You know it's more of,you know, the stock basis. You think they're gonna make, they're gonna win before the ice cube melts? They're gonna figure out if...

I'm sorry. You're going from local to just a question on AOL.

Yeah, completely moved to that. Yeah. The first...looks. It's...

'Cause I personally think it's... I can't say anymore.

Of course you can't say anymore. Even you're asking the question a suspect but nevertheless... no...l ook, it's a speculation.

Yeah.

You have to say it's a speculation . But for the first time in more than 10 years, when was AOL...it was 10 years ago, 2001... ...20th anniversary with the acquisition.

Yeah. Well, I don't think they're doing anything interesting around that time anyway.

No.

So, for 12, 14 years which in an internet company of such size is beyond an eternity? Nothing good happened.

Yeah. Now, good things...you know the words, real things are happening.

Yeah.

There's a real direction, there's a real plan and it's under a real leader. It's independent. It doesn't have you know, Warner's which disdained its from the moment it was bought. And really destroyed enormous amount of value. I mean, not. I mean, I don't know conscious what on or whatever.

Yeah. So, it's now on it's own and it's got a real chance. Whether it comes through or not, will be really interesting to watch but the energy is there. The commitment is there, and so I don't know, but for the first time, it's worth