Diller’s $464-Million Options

Entertainment mogul Barry Diller, who is the chairman and chief executive of IAC/InterActiveCorp and chairman of Expedia Inc., realized a combined $464 million from exercising stock options of both companies last year.

Diller, who oversaw the online travel subsidiary Expedia’s spinoff from the Internet commerce conglomerate IAC last year, realized $290 million from the exercise of IAC options and $174 million from the exercise of Expedia options, according to annual proxies filed by the two companies with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.

Both companies define value realized as the difference between the options’ exercise price and the stock price at the time of the exercise.

Data from Thomson Financial show that Diller -- best known for organizing a fourth network at Fox in the 1980s that challenged ABC, CBS and NBC -- didn’t sell the shares acquired through the options.

IAC spokeswoman Andrea Riggs said both IAC and Expedia options exercised by Diller last year stemmed from a 1995 option grant and were set to expire last year.

IAC also granted Diller 4.8 million stock options in June with exercise prices ranging from 30% to 75% above the stock’s market price.

These options were granted “to provide Mr. Diller with substantial motivation to increase long-term stockholder value at both IAC and Expedia following the spinoff,” Expedia said in its proxy.