People Incorporated is an American publishing company. It is the parent company of People Inc., Care.com, Vivian Health, The Daily Beast, and IAC Films. It also owns 26.1% of MGM Resorts International (with a pending proposal of complete acquisition) and 31% of Turo.

The company was founded in 1986 as Silver King Broadcasting Company and in 1996 became HSN Inc., the holding company of Home Shopping Network. In 1998 the company acquired USA Network and changed its name to USA Networks, Inc. The firm's television assets were sold to Vivendi in 2002 and the company changed its name to USA Interactive. The company changed its name to InterActiveCorp, and later to IAC/InterActiveCorp in 2004. In 2012, the company acquired About.com and changed its name to IAC Inc. In June 2026, the company changed its name to People Incorporated.

The company is organized in Delaware with principal executive offices in New York City.

History

1980s and 1990s

People Incorporated was incorporated on July 28, 1986 as Silver King Broadcasting Company, Inc., as a subsidiary of Home Shopping Network. By 1988, Silver King had bought 11 stations for about $220 million. The company was later renamed as HSN Communications, Inc., and then Silver King Communications, Inc. In 1992, Silver King was spun off to HSN shareholders as a separately traded public company. In August 1995, Barry Diller acquired control of Silver King, in a deal backed by the company's largest shareholder, Liberty Media. Diller, who had led the creation of Fox Broadcasting Company, reportedly hoped to use Silver King's stations as the foundation for a new broadcast network. The company acquired several assets in the late 1990s. In December 1996, Silver King acquired an 80% stake in HSN for $1.3 billion in stock, and changed its own name to HSN, Inc. At the same time, the company acquired Savoy Pictures, a failed film studio that owned four Fox affiliate stations through SF Broadcasting, for $210 million in stock.

HSN purchased a controlling stake in Ticketmaster in July 1997, and acquired the rest of the company in June 1998. In February 1998, it acquired the television assets of Universal Studios (including USA Network, Sci-Fi Channel, and Universal Television's domestic production and distribution arms) for $4.1 billion. The company's name was changed to USA Networks, Inc. at this point. Continuing its acquisition strategy, the company acquired the Hotel Reservations Network in May 1999 for $149 million.

USA Networks merged the online division of Ticketmaster with city guide website Citysearch in September 1998, establishing a new company that went public as Ticketmaster Online–CitySearch (TMCS). USA then sold Ticketmaster proper to TMCS in 2001, retaining a 61% share in the combined company, which became known as simply Ticketmaster. USA brought Ticketmaster back under full ownership in 2003, purchasing all outstanding shares.

2000s

In the early 2000s, USA Networks began divesting itself of its traditional television broadcasting and production units. In May 2001, Univision Communications acquired USA Broadcasting (a division of USA Networks including 13 local stations). The next year, Vivendi bought the rest of USA's television entertainment businesses, including the USA Network and Sci-Fi Channel. This led to the creation of a new company named Vivendi Universal Entertainment, led by Diller. Throughout this transition, USA Networks continued to build up its online portfolio. In July 2001, the company entered the online travel business with its acquisition of Expedia, followed the next year by an acquisition of Interval International.

Following the shift in focus to online assets, the company changed its name to USA Interactive (USAI) in May 2002; InterActiveCorp in June 2003; and finally to IAC/InterActiveCorp in July 2004.

In August 2003, IAC acquired the online mortgage comparison site LendingTree, and in September, the company added discount travel website Hotwire.com to its growing list of acquisitions. In October, IAC agreed to buy French travel site Anyway.com from Transat A.T. for $62.7 million.

In 2004 and 2005, IAC continued its growth through acquisition, adding assets including Tripadvisor, ServiceMagic, and Ask Jeeves. It also launched Gifts.com during this period. In August 2005, the company bundled together its travel-related sites and spun them off as a new public company, Expedia, Inc. Additional acquisitions in 2006 included ShoeBuy.com, which the company later sold to Jet, and Connected Ventures including CollegeHumor and Vimeo.

In May 2008, IAC and Ask.com acquired Lexico, the owner of Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com, and Reference.com. In August 2008, IAC spun off several of its businesses, including: Tree.com (formerly LendingTree), the Home Shopping Network, Ticketmaster, and Interval International.

In April 2009, IAC acquired Urbanspoon. It acquired People Media for $80 million in July 2009. Also in July 2009, the company launched Notional, a production company.

2010s

In February 2010, IAC's Match.com acquired Singlesnet, an online dating site. In May 2010, it acquired DailyBurn, a fitness site .

In December 2010, following a protracted dispute over the 2008 spinoffs, Liberty traded its IAC stock for $220 million in cash, plus ownership of Evite and Gifts.com. On the same day, Diller stepped down as CEO but remained chairman, and Match.com CEO Greg Blatt was appointed to succeed him.

In 2012, IAC acquired People Inc., (then called About.com). A few years later, IAC renamed it Dotdash. In 2021, IAC's Dotdash acquired the magazine assets of Meredith Corporation (which had previously acquired Time Inc. in 2018). Following the acquisition, the company took the name Dotdash Meredith.

In January 2013, IAC acquired online tutoring firm Tutor.com. On August 3, 2013, IAC sold Newsweek to the International Business Times on undisclosed terms.

On December 22, 2013, IAC fired Justine Sacco, director of corporate communications, after she posted an AIDS joke regarding her upcoming trip to Africa to Twitter, which went viral. The incident became a byword for the need for people to be cautious about what they post on social media.

In August 2014, IAC acquired ASKfm for an undisclosed sum.

IAC sold Urbanspoon to Zomato in January 2015 for around $50 million.

In November 2015, IAC and Match Group announced the closing of Match Group's previously announced initial public offering.

In May 2017, HomeAdvisor combined with Angie's List, forming the new publicly traded company ANGI Homeservices Inc. The company made its stock market debut in October 2017. In October 2018, ANGI made its first acquisition of on-demand platform Handy.

In January 2019, IAC sold Citysearch parent CityGrid to eLocal. In July 2019, IAC made its largest investment ever in the world's largest peer-to-peer car sharing marketplace, Turo. Later that year, IAC acquired Care.com. In December 2019, IAC and Match Group entered into an agreement providing for the full separation of Match Group from the remaining businesses of IAC.

2020s

In January 2020, IAC withdrew its financial backing for CollegeHumor and its sister websites and sold the websites to Chief Creative Officer Sam Reich; IAC remains a minority owner of Reich's rebranded company Dropout. As a result of the restructuring, more than 100 employees of CollegeHumor were laid off.

In February 2020, IAC completed its $500 million acquisition of Care.com.

In July 2020, Match Group was separated from the remaining businesses of IAC, including the corporate spin-off of the company.

In August 2020, IAC acquired a 12% stake in MGM Resorts International. It increased the stake to 16.5% in August 2022.

In May 2021, IAC completed the spin-off of Vimeo, the 11th company to be spun-off from IAC.

In October 2021, IAC announced the acquisition of Meredith Corporation's National Media Group for $2.7 billion. The deal closed December 1, 2021, and the acquired Meredith (and the former Time Inc.) assets merged with IAC subsidiary Dotdash, forming a new entity called Dotdash Meredith.

In August 2022, IAC changed its legal entity (IAC/InterActiveCorp) to IAC Inc. In October, IAC agreed to sell its workforce-as-a-service platform Bluecrew to EmployBridge with IAC remaining a minority shareholder in Bluecrew's business.

In June 2026, IAC was renamed People Incorporated. Neil Vogel, who has been CEO of the People business segment, became CEO of the entire company.

Brands

People Inc.

Care.com

  • Care.com

Emerging & Other

See also

External links

  • Business data for People Incorporated: