Barry Diller and Vivendi have finally arrived at a truce.
Diller’s InterActiveCorp will sell its 5.4% stake in Vivendi Universal Entertainment to NBC Universal for $3.4 billion, AP reported.
IAC and Vivendi also agreed to drop lawsuits they had filed against each other in Delaware, according to AP.
Under terms of the agreement, announced Wednesday, IAC will get back some 56.6 million shares of its own stock that had been held by Vivendi, as well $865 million from the sale of U.S. Treasury bonds that had secured its interests.
Vivendi will also pay an additional $235 million in cash, while General Electric Co. will contribute $800 million, including $100 million of free advertising that IAC will be able to use on NBC or one of its other television networks, AP reported.
IAC told AP it will now focus on its stable of popular Web sites, including Ticketmaster (www.ticketmaster.com), LendingTree (lendingtree.com), Match.com (www.match.com) and Evite (www.evite.com), as well as Ask Jeeves Inc. (www.ask.com), which it hopes to complete the acquisition of later this year.
