IAC’s 2Q Surges

Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp had a second quarter it can be proud of, with profits that surged more than eightfold.

IAC – which includes Ticketmaster, Expedia and Citysearch in its properties – reported earnings of $618 million compared to $70 million in the same quarter of last year. Expedia will be spun-off soon and, taking that out of the picture, IAC had $66.5 million in operating income, compared to $29.3 million a year ago.

Ticketmaster benefitted from a strong summer concert season thus far.

Revenue is at $1.4 billion, up from $976.6 million.

The quarter’s results were bolstered by the company’s sale of stakes in Euvia Media and Vivendi Universal Entertainment, which added $79.6 million and $322 million to IAC’s coffers, respectively.

IAC and Expedia (plus IAC’s other travel-related properties) plan to trade as independent companies starting August 9th.