Barry Diller invented Prestige TV. So he conquered the Internet

Of all Egomaniaci lions who ruled Hollywood during 20^th Century Gatekeemper was, very few have made a brilliant pivot on the internet. The exception is Barry Diller. After guiding the programming at ABC, performing Paramount and swallowing Fox by launching his transmission network in the late 1980s, Diller no longer wanted to work for anyone else. Or you are or you are notHe said independence. As a free agent, he quickly grabbed the power of income and built an empire that includes the Expedia group, almost the entire online appointment sector (Tinder, Match, Okcupid) and an average range of online that includes people, who wrote a piece of success on him at the beginning of his career entitled “Falling Upwards”.

In his book of absorbent memories, Who knew it, The third act of Diller’s career becomes short, since the road to become an internet billionaire is sent to some tens of pages. Most of the book intertwines his life as a night-to-out gay man (who loves his iconic wife Diane Von Furstenberg) with a deliciously disgusting report of his Hollywood days. So, as a type of wired reader, I start our interview by calling him on the deficiency of tea as regards his life in technology.

With Diane von Fürstenberg in the Dominican Republic.
For kind concession of Simon & Schuster

“What do you mean?” Growls Diller, a well -known boy of suffering, who two weeks after the publication is undoubtedly tiring the promotion of the book. When I tell him that I just wanted to hear the wonderful details of his technological days, like those who shared on his previous acts, his behavior changes and he happily agree with me. “I made a magician,” he says about his internet triumphs, citing time constraints. (Note: The book was in preparation of 15 years.) “It is something I should have done and I didn’t do.”

I try to compensate the omission in our conversation. To start things, I remind him of a New Yorker Ken Auletta profile of 1993 entitled, “Barry Diller’s research for the future.” He describes Diller’s search for a third post-Hollywood act using the metaphor of his new obsession for an Apple Powerbook. A decade in the PC revolution, the idea of ​​a media magnate that in reality used a computer was a novelty and Auletta behaved as if Diller had invented public key encryption.

But the powerbook era Critic, says Diller. During his first work, as twenty -year -old who works in the post room in William Morris, he buried himself in the archives and tried to read every single file and contract to understand the nuances of the business. In each next work, he decided to absorb voluminous information before making critical decisions. It was his superpower. With the Apple laptop it could now have all these data at hand. “I could do everything myself,” he says. “Technology has substantially saved me from my obsolescence.” In the early 90s-the perfect time to get to know the digital world, just before the boom-made a high-tech listening tour that included visits to Microsoft and the Mit Media Lab. “My eyes were saucers,” he says. “I ate every centimeter.”

He also met Steve Jobs during his tour, which showed him the first coils of a film he was working on History of toys. “I’ve never had an attitude for animation, I don’t like it,” says Diller. “Of course he was right and I was wrong. He picked me up to join the Pixar card, and I didn’t want to do it. Steve doesn’t like being refused.” Diller describes his relationship with the works later as full of tension. He was surprised to be Jobs’ work experts but despised his burnt earth tactics. “The idea of ​​having a 30 percent tax on the clothing of the Apple store was, and is an absolute outrage. It was pure Steve. But now it is breaking,” he adds, referring to the recent antitrust dispute that is clearly following.

When the internet took off, Diller went in binge. Some prizes are mostly forgotten – Citysearch? – But others have been inspired. He convinced Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer to sell him Expedia, and has become the centerpiece of a group of travel that now includes hotels.com, ORbitz and Vrbo. The total evaluation of its companies is now over $ 100 billion. Remember most of “luck, circumstance and timing”.