Strong growth in dating and home services helped media company IAC/InterActiveCorp. beat top-line expectations for the March quarter.
IAC IAC, +0.63%[1] on Wednesday reported revenue of $995.1 million, up from $760.8 a year earlier, and earnings per share of 71 cents, up from 29 cents a year earlier. Analysts had been expecting $934.5 million in revenue. The FactSet consensus is 81 cents. However, Facebook provides two estimates, a non-GAAP number that’s for 81 cents and a GAAP number that’s for 29 cents.
Shares were down 3.1% in after-hours trading.
The biggest contributors to the company’s revenue were its stakes in Match Group Inc. MTCH, +1.46%[2] and Angi Homeservices Inc. ANGI, +1.92%[3] IAC said it had an 80.9% “economic interest” in Match and an 86.8% economic interest in Angi.
See more: Match wants to move from ‘swipe right’ to ‘press play’[4]
Match, which reported better-than-expected results on Tuesday, has been of considerable interest to investors in recent days after Facebook Inc. FB, +2.09%[5] announced that it would be rolling out its own dating product[6]. Match’s executives downplayed the Facebook threat[7], but concerns appeared to weigh somewhat on shares. They traded down most of the day but closed up 1.5%.
IAC Chief Executive Joey Levin also shrugged off Facebook’s move, writing in a letter to shareholders that “on the long list of things we worry about in our dating business, this announcement doesn’t top the list.” He said that Match and IAC “have a 23-year head start and several months advanced warning, and we’re going to take advantage of all of it.”
Levin highlighted results at Angi Homeservices, which is the company that was formed when IAC bought Angie’s List, combined it with its own HomeAdvisor service, and spun out the company. Levin said that the company has been successful in taking “significant costs out of the combined business.”
Don’t miss: Americans know housing is a seller’s market but buyers still want in[8]
He also spoke of Vimeo, the company’s ad-free, video-streaming service. “Vimeo remains the most underappreciated asset in our portfolio,” Levin said. “With a very strong start to the year and pipeline, we now expect in excess of $125...