Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- IAC/InterActiveCorp, the Internet and media company run by Barry Diller, said third-quarter profit almost doubled on higher revenue from its Match.com and Ticketmaster units.

Net income from continuing operations rose to $69.1 million, or 22 cents a share, from $35.1 million, or 10 cents, a year earlier, New York-based IAC said in a statement today. Excluding certain items including options expenses, IAC earned 35 cents, exceeding analysts' estimates of 33 cents.

Sales climbed 11 percent to $1.6 billion on demand from Rolling Stones and U2 concert tickets from Ticketmaster and increased subscribers at personals Web site Match.com. In the past 18 months, Diller acquired entertainment and information sites Ask.com and Collegehumor.com that draw audiences through content and derive revenue from advertising.

``IAC has a lot of very good cash-generating business and they're good at finding ways to invest the cash they generate,'' said Howard Deshong, a portfolio manager at Bristlecone Value Partners in Los Angeles that holds IAC shares among its $500 million in assets.

Including discontinued operations, net income rose 7.9 percent to $74.9 million from $69.5 million a year earlier when the Expedia travel unit, spun off last year, was still part of results.

IAC shares rose $1.16, or 3.9 percent, to $30.98 at 4 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. They have climbed 9.4 percent this year compared with a 10.4 percent increase by the Standard and Poor's 500 index.

Diller built IAC from more than 60 companies including HSN and LendingTree.com to tap into the desire of consumers for the convenience of online services.

Acquisition Pace

The pace of acquisition has slowed as IAC focuses on growing its existing companies, Diller said on a conference call today with analysts and investors.

``We don't see any holes,'' said Diller. It's ``not that we're not always alert for opportunities but we're much more concentrated on the consistency of operations. We're much more disciplined.''

Safa Rashtchy, a Piper Jaffray & Co. analyst top-ranked for accuracy by StarMine Corp., estimated profit of 31 cents a share, excluding items. That's 2 cents less than the average from 13 analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial. Thompson doesn't disclose the basis of the estimates in its survey to Bloomberg.

IAC also said it would repurchase as many as 60 million shares. In the third quarter, it bought back 12.4 million shares at an average price of $25.79.

Unit Results

Ticketmaster revenue increased 17 percent, to $265.5 million from $227.5 million. Last week, the unit announced a Chinese joint venture through which it will serve as the exclusive ticketing supplier at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Revenue in the subscription division, which includes Match.com, grew 22 percent to $80.2 million as paid subscribers grew by 12 percent to 1.3 million.

Sales at the HSN shopping network was flat, IAC said. HSN has disappointed investors in recent quarters after sales declined due to unpopular merchandise and inventory problems.

Former Nike Inc. executive Mindy Grossman was hired as the new head of retailing in April to implement a turnaround plan and better integrate catalog company Cornerstone Brands, acquired last year, Diller has said.

Lending unit revenue, which includes the LendingTree.com mortgage business, fell 3 percent to $106 million as rising interest rates slowed home buying.

Ask.com

Sales from the media and advertising division that contains the Ask.com search site increased 62 percent to $135.5 million while operating loss more than doubled to $2.1 million.

IAC is spending more to promote Ask.com, ranked fourth among Internet search engines as of September with 5.8 percent of the market, behind Google Inc.'s 45 percent, according to comScore Networks. In August 2005, a month after Diller bought the Ask Jeeves Inc. search site for $1.96 billion, its share was 6.0 percent.

Diller, 64, built the company through acquisitions over the past nine years, starting with Home Shopping Network in 1996. IAC was called USA Networks Inc. before Diller sold its USA cable-TV network and other entertainment assets to Vivendi Universal SA two years ago for $3.4 billion to focus on Internet commerce and home shopping.

Diller was chief executive officer of the Paramount film studio in the 1970s and early 1980s and then started the Fox TV network for Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. in the late 1980s.

Of the 14 analysts that cover IAC, six rate the stock ``buy'' and eight say ``hold.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Oliver Staley in New York at ostaley@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 31, 2006 16:23 EST