Diller, Malone Drama Continues

The drama continues for former Live Nation Entertainment board chairman Barry Diller, who has also resigned as CEO of former Ticketmaster parent IAC/InterActiveCorp. The company named Greg Blatt as his replacement.

Diller rival and current LN interim chairman John Malone, at the same time, was clearing out his share of IAC. Malone, who also heads up Liberty Media, exchanged his 12.8 million shares of IAC for two online businesses and about $220 million in cash.

“It’s been clear to me for some time that this company needs a full time, aggressive and inspirational executive in the CEO role,” Diller said in a statement quoted by Bloomberg. “While I’m not going anywhere, IAC, with its operating businesses growing, large cash resources and virtually no debt, needs the kind of leadership that Greg Blatt can bring it in order to continue to grow and thrive.”

Diller may have stepped down as CEO, but the result of the Malone transaction is that Diller now has a holding that represents more than one-third of the votes in IAC stock, according to Bloomberg. He was also reportedly granted the right to increase his IAC stake within the next nine months to give him a total of 41 percent of the votes in the company.

In more boardroom news, LN boardmember Victor Kaufman has exited his position.

Kaufman, who has been on the board since January, has been a director of IAC since 1997 and vice chairman of IAC since 1999.

He has also been vice chairman of the board of IAC’s Expedia since 2005. More notably, Kaufman served as a member of Ticketmaster’s board of directors from August 2008 until the merger with Live Nation.