29 Facts About Barry Diller

Barry Charles Diller was born on February 2,1942 and is an American businessman.

Barry Diller is Chairman and Senior Executive of IAC and Expedia Group and founded the Fox Broadcasting Company and USA Broadcasting.

Barry Diller was born on February 2,1942 into a Jewish household in San Francisco, California to Michael Barry Diller and his wife Reva.

Barry Diller began his career through a family connection in the mailroom of the William Morris Agency after dropping out of UCLA after three weeks.

Barry Diller was hired as an assistant by Elton Rule, then West Coast head of ABC, who was promoted to network President at the same time Diller went to work for him in 1964, taking him on to New York City.

Barry Diller was placed in charge of negotiating broadcast rights to feature films.

Barry Diller was promoted to Vice President of Development in 1965.

Barry Diller served for 10 years as the chairman and chief executive officer of Paramount Pictures Corporation from 1974 until 1984.

Barry Diller focused on having the Madison Square Garden maintain rights to its sports games, which in turn could allow for an extended level of broadcasting for future Madison Square Garden events as not only a source of programming for the USA Network, but as a source of programming for Madison Square Garden Network cable subscribers and any future regional pay-television network.

From October 1984 to April 1992, Barry Diller held the positions of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of 20th Century Fox, where he launched the Fox network and greenlighted shows such as Married.

Barry Diller then launched a bid to purchase Paramount Communications, but lost it to Viacom.

In October 1997, it was announced that Barry Diller would be acquiring the USA Network, which was run by Kay Koplovitz, and other Seagram-owned Universal TV businesses, which included the Koplovitz-run USA Network spinoff Sci Fi Channel, for $4.1 billion and that these networks would be owned by Barry Diller's Home Shopping Network.

Barry Diller previously had owned stock in the USA Network in the early 1980s, when Paramount Pictures acquired part of the network under his leadership.

Barry Diller was was the one who put together the 1981 USA Network ownership agreement between Paramount, Time Inc and MCA which convinced Madison Square Garden management to not sell their interests in the network.

Barry Diller eventually sold the TV assets to Univision after rejecting a bid from The Walt Disney Company.

Barry Diller was still involved with the USA Network until the Vivendi sale was announced in December 2001.

Barry Diller has been on the board of Coca-Cola since 2002.

In 2003, on the PBS program NOW with Bill Moyers, Barry Diller voiced a strong warning against media consolidation.

Barry Diller was "the highest-paid executive [of fiscal year 2005]", according to a report by The New York Times on October 26,2006, with total compensation in excess of $295 million.

In October 2019, Barry Diller had a $4.2 billion fortune in technology companies, after investing early on in companies such as Match.

In 2012, Barry Diller became an investor in the streaming service company Aereo.

Since 2013, Barry Diller has co-produced more than ten Broadway shows in partnership with Scott Rudin, including To Kill A Mockingbird, West Side Story, Carousel, The Humans, Three Tall Woman, Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, and A Doll's House, Part 2.

In early 2020, Barry Diller took over Expedia's day-to-day operations alongside the Vice Chairman Peter Kern, after the company's CFO stepped down in December 2019.

Barry Diller announced that Expedia is generating no revenue and would have to cut costs.

Barry Diller worked with Stephen Chao at Fox Television Network, whom he later hired as President of Programming and Marketing at USA Network.

In 2001, Barry Diller married fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, mother of Prince Alexander von Furstenberg and Princess Tatiana von Furstenberg.

Barry Diller is a member of the Democratic Party and supporter of related political causes.

Barry Diller has had both short-term boyfriends and long-term relationships ; he appears frequently at gay parties and gay benefits.

In 2012, Barry Diller donated $30 million to the Hollywood Fund, which provides health and social care to retired individuals from the show-business world.