Barry Diller will step down as CEO of IAC/InteractiveCorp

Reporting from Chicago —  Media mogul Barry Diller will step down from his role as chief executive of IAC/InteractiveCorp, the company said Thursday, as he assumes the positions of chairman and senior executive.

“It’s been clear to me for some time that this company needs a full-time aggressive and aspirational executive in the CEO role,” Diller said in a statement.

Former Match.com CEO Greg Blatt will become IAC’s chief executive.

The news came as IAC and John Malone’s Liberty Media Corp. announced that Liberty had agreed to exchange its 60% stake in IAC for all of the stock of a wholly owned subsidiary of IAC that holds the Evite and Gifts.com businesses, along with about $220 million in cash.

After the transaction, Diller will have shares representing about 34% of the total votes of all classes of IAC stock, the largest individual voting stake in the company.

Diller will also have the right to swap as many as 1.5 million more shares of IAC common stock he may buy within the next nine months for an equal number of shares of Class B stock held in the treasury of IAC. That move would give him control of 41% of the total votes of all classes of IAC stock.

Diller and Malone have had a tempestuous relationship that dates to the early 1990s. Diller then headed the QVC shopping network, which was partly owned by Malone’s Tele-Communications Inc., then the largest U.S. cable operator.

Diller left QVC, but was later given the right to vote Malone’s 23% stake in Silver King Communications, a group of UHF stations.

Wilkerson writes for MarketWatch.com/McClatchy.