Diller looks to UK for acquisitions

Dust off your elevator pitch and line up your backers. Barry Diller of IAC/InterActiveCorp and the online travel company Expedia, wants to buy ventures in the UK, especially in the travel sector.

As The Guardian reports, one potential target could be Cheapflights, the price comparison website which has confirmed it is considering a £200m sale or flotation, but Diller has declined to comment. Other targets might be eBookers or Lastminute.com. Diller did mention that Ask.co.uk has “got lots of ideas and is starting to turn itself around”.

It’s not surprising he is looking at the UK. The formerUK TV Channel 4 boss, Michael Jackson, is programming chief at IAC, which is about to launch a daily online comedy show in association with the Huffington Post, and VeryShortList.com.

He could probably do no worse than look at Dublin-based Web Reservations International, which runs Hostelworld and Hostels.com. As Web2ireland reports it plans to launch a travel search engine next January and gunning for a valuation of $1 billion.