An Untimely Embarrassment For Barry Diller
Could Barry Diller's Fi Life, a misconceived financial portal for young investors, already be in trouble? Several journalists who joined the outfit, a joint venture between Diller's IAC and Dow Jones, are said to be scrambling for new jobs. (Email if you have details.) The project involved Dave Kansas, a veteran of online financial news with a jinx; partnerships between big media conglomerates usually work better as cocktail party fantasy than they do as actual businesses; and Rupert Murdoch, who acquired Dow Jones last year, prefers full control. So Fi Life was obviously doomed. But one would have thought Diller, who's in a Delaware court fighting for control of his internet conglomerate, would want to arrange a more elegant unwinding.