John Malone surely knew this, which is probably why he hired technology executive Greg Maffei as C.E.O. of Liberty Media in 2002. If, as has been speculated, Malone was about to set Liberty on a collision course with IAC—and by extension, Diller—he might as well have a fall guy in the event the strategy failed. While Maffei had an impressive résumé, with senior-executive stints at Microsoft and Oracle, what he also had was a contentious history with Diller. Maffei had been chairman of Expedia when it was acquired by IAC in 2002, and according to his own testimony, somewhere in the confusion, he lost track of some $28 million in options that subsequently expired and became worthless. Maffei appealed to Expedia C.E.O. Dara Khosrowshahi to reinstate the options, but Khosrowshahi refused. Diller testified at the trial that when Maffei asked Khosrowshahi to change the option dates of his agreement, Khosrowshahi told him, “I’m not going to jail for you.”

While to billionaires like Malone and Diller, the loss of $28 million might not mean much, it rankled Maffei. In Delaware, when Malone was asked whether Maffei had a grudge against Diller, Malone understatedly responded, “We knew that there had been a history.” Maffei would proceed to build on that history, spending the next few years slowly ratcheting up the pressure on Diller, who contends that Maffei openly criticized him with growing frequency.

Maffei’s public remarks led Diller to confront him during one of media banker Herb Allen’s Sun Valley, Idaho, retreats, accusing Maffei of acting a little “high school” and asking that they find a way to change the tone. He says that Maffei agreed. But Maffei only redoubled his efforts, inviting a Wall Street Journal reporter to accompany him in the fall of 2007 on the company jet from New York to Colorado, where the reporter met with Malone. That flight eventually led to a front-page hit job that Malone himself participated in but later disavowed.

It’s hard to believe that Malone didn’t see what was coming, especially considering the numerous zingers he offered up to the reporter. On ownership of IAC: “The hook is set. It is our company. Barry ain’t going to be able to spit the hook.” On Wall Street’s view of Diller: “There was a time when there was, I think, a 20 percent Barry premium. Today you could argue there is a Barry discount.” Last, Malone said, “It is a little uncomfortable for Barry. Right now we are the shadow that walks around behind him.”

When I tell Diller that I don’t quite believe his testimony that he was “hurt” by the Journal article, he doesn’t pause for a second. “You’re wrong,” he says. “I was. But I wasn’t hurt by Greg Maffei. Greg Maffei can’t hurt me. But John Malone, with whom I have had a very long relationship? What he did absolutely hurt me.” Diller nevertheless hopes to patch things up with Malone. “Malone was the only credible witness they had,” he says.

While the trial itself was mind-numbing at times, the subtext was riveting: John Malone, slayer of moguls, was looking to destroy the reputation of a man whose myth he had helped create. News coverage of the trial failed to adequately convey this aspect, given the dailies’ need to cover the incremental developments.

The gist of the dispute is this: Diller decided that in the process of splitting IAC into five pieces, he would also strip Liberty of its supervoting rights in four of IAC’s five companies. Liberty owns some 30 percent of IAC’s stock but 62 percent of the votes through its ownership of supervoting shares.

In 1995, Diller made it clear that his motives in joining forces with Malone were to be his own boss and to have a serious piece of the action. The two men agreed that Diller would vote Liberty’s stake in the company through a proxy agreement. But Diller soon found himself in the very situation he’d hoped to avoid. Major shareholders blocked his efforts to buy NBC and then nearly derailed his purchase of Expedia.

As a result, Diller told Malone that unless he could shake off the restrictions, he was out. Malone acquiesced. The question in Delaware was whether Diller had the right to split his own company if he desired. Judge Stephen Lamb decided that he did.