Barry Diller Invented Prestige TV. Then He Conquered the Internet

Of each the egomaniacal lions who ruled Hollywood during nan 20th period gatekeeper era, very fewer made a superb pivot to nan internet. The objection is Barry Diller. After starring programming astatine ABC, moving Paramount, and supercharging Fox by launching its broadcast web successful nan precocious 1980s, Diller nary longer wanted to activity for anyone else. Either you are aliases you aren’t, he said of independence. As a free supplier he quickly grasped nan powerfulness of interactivity and built an empire that includes Expedia Group, almost nan full online making love assemblage (Tinder, Match, OkCupid), and an online media lineup that includes People, which wrote a deed portion connected him early successful his profession titled “Failing Upwards.”

In his absorbing memoir, Who Knew, nan 3rd enactment of Diller’s profession gets short shrift, arsenic nan roadworthy to becoming an net billionaire is dispatched successful a fewer twelve pages. The bulk of nan book weaves his life arsenic a not-quite-out cheery man (who nevertheless passionately loves his iconic woman Diane von Furstenberg) pinch a deliciously dishy relationship of his Hollywood days. So arsenic a WIRED benignant of reader, I commencement our question and reply by calling him retired connected nan beverage shortage regarding his life successful tech.

“What do you mean?” growls Diller, a notorious suffer-no-fools guy, who 2 weeks aft publication is undoubtedly getting tired of book promotion. When I show him I conscionable wanted to perceive awesome specifications from his tech days, for illustration nan ones he shared astir his earlier acts, his demeanor changes, and he cheerfully agrees pinch me. “I did whiz by it,” he says of his net triumphs, citing clip constraints. (Note: nan book was 15 years successful nan making.) “It is thing I should person done and I didn't do.”

I effort to dress up for nan omission successful our conversation. To get things started, I punctual him of a 1993 Ken Auletta New Yorker floor plan titled, “Barry Diller’s Search for nan Future.” It describes Diller’s quest for a post-Hollywood 3rd enactment utilizing nan metaphor of his recently recovered obsession pinch an Apple PowerBook. A decade into nan PC revolution, nan thought of a media mogul really utilizing a machine was a novelty, and Auletta acted arsenic if Diller had invented nationalist cardinal cryptography.

But nan PowerBook was critical, says Diller. During his first job, arsenic a 20-year-old moving nan message room astatine William Morris, he buried himself successful nan archives and tried to publication each azygous record and statement to understand nan nuances of nan business. In each consequent job, he group retired to sorb voluminous accusation earlier making captious decisions. It was his superpower. With nan Apple laptop now he could person each this information astatine his fingertips. “I could do everything myself,” he says. “Tech has fundamentally rescued maine from my ain obsolescence.” In nan early ’90s—the cleanable clip to study astir nan integer world, conscionable earlier nan boom—he went connected a high-tech listening circuit that included visits to Microsoft and nan MIT Media Lab. “My eyes were saucers,” he says. “I ate each inch up.”

He besides met Steve Jobs connected his tour, who showed him nan first fewer reels of a movie he was moving connected called Toy Story. “I’ve ne'er had an aptitude for animation—I don’t for illustration it,” Diller says. “Of people he was correct and I was wrong. He pounded maine to subordinate nan Pixar board, and I conscionable didn't want to do it. Steve doesn't for illustration to beryllium turned down.” Diller describes his narration pinch Jobs thereafter arsenic tension-packed. He marveled astatine Jobs’ business savvy but despised his scorched-earth tactics. “The thought of having a 30 percent taxation connected going done nan Apple shop was, and is, an absolute outrage. It was axenic Steve. But it’s breaking isolated now,” he adds, referring to caller antitrust litigation that he’s intelligibly following.

When nan net took off, Diller went connected a buying binge. Some prizes are mostly forgotten—CitySearch?—but others were inspired. He convinced Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer to waste him Expedia, and it became nan centerpiece of a recreation group that now includes Hotels.com, Orbitz, and Vrbo. The full valuation of his companies is now complete $100 billion. He credits astir of it to “luck, circumstance, and timing.”