Barry Diller’s media conglomerate InterActiveCorp today reported revenue in its financial services and real estate segment grew to $47.9 million in the third quarter, up from $24.4 million a year ago. The segment includes revenue from LendingTree, RealEstate.com, GetSmart and Domania.
The financial services and real estate arm had an operating loss of $200,000, representing a growth of 96 percent from the operating loss of $4.9 million during the third quarter of 2003.
The number of real estate and loan transactions closed during the quarter fell to 68,900 in the third quarter from 90,700 during the same quarter last year. The volume of transactions closed was $7.6 billion, down 28 percent from $10.6 billion a year ago.
Purchase mortgage revenue grew 104 percent, real estate revenue grew 34 percent, home equity revenue grew 22 percent and other services revenue grew 95 percent. The company said the favorable growth trends were partially offset by a 53 percent decrease in revenue from refinance mortgages.
The company’s lender network grew 5 percent to 234 lenders in the third quarter, and the real estate agency network grew 14 percent to 771 agencies.
InterActiveCorp’s holdings include home shopping, ticket, travel, lodging, dating, and mortgage and real estate-related businesses. The company’s overall revenue was $1.5 billion in the third quarter, down 7 percent from $1.6 billion a year ago.
Overall net income was $89 million, up from $19 million a year ago, and diluted earnings per share was 12 cents a share, up from 2 cents a share during the third quarter 2003.
The company projects operating income of about $430 million for all of 2004.
InterActiveCorp shares (Nasdaq: IACI) were trading at $25.21 this morning.
InterActiveCorp entered the real estate space in May 2003 with the purchase of LendingTree, then later bought certain assets of GetSmart, as well as the highly coveted RealEstate.com domain and Domania. In July 2004, InterActiveCorp bought ServiceMagic, and in September, LendingTree purchased HomeLoanCenter.com, a Web-based direct-to-consumer lender.
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