IAC/InterActiveCorp, the internet and retailing conglomerate that includes properties such as Match.com, LendingTree, and Ticketmaster, announced it will spin off four units to become five publicly traded businesses.  

IAC will retain its internet-media and advertising businesses, including Match.com, Evite, and Ask.com. LendingTree and other real estate ventures will become one stand-alone company. HSN, the home-shopping network, and related retailing units will become another. Ticketmaster will be one as well. And the fourth will be its Interval International business, which is a travel and time-share company.   

"We've been a complex enterprise almost from the very beginning 12 years ago, with hundreds of transactions over those years. And while we've created a lot of value, I've always believed our complexity and many mouthfuls of sentences to explain who we are and what our strategy is have hampered clarity and understanding with all our constituencies, particularly investors," said Barry Diller, chief executive officer of IAC.

IAC expects the spinoffs to be complete by the second or third quarter of 2008. Diller will remain the chairman and chief executive of IAC, and the chief executives of HSN, Ticketmaster, LendingTree, and Interval will remain in those posts.

Investors welcomed the news that the $8.5 billion company will split up. Its shares rose more than 7 percent in morning trading.