About Joseph Levin
Joey Levin, CEO of IAC, discussed the company’s consideration of a spin-off of its 85% stake in Angi, stating that Angi is “in great shape now” and “healthy enough to be on its own” after years of improving customer experience and expanding profit. He noted that IAC is “slimming down” to focus on a few things well. Regarding M&A, Levin said the bar for new acquisitions is “very high” and that the market is “pretty expensive,” leading the company to “try and build cash.” He predicted that 2024 would be a “big year for M&A generally,” citing a loosening regulatory environment.
Levin commented on the impact of AI, saying that OpenAI’s ChatGPT is “likely to be positive for traffic” and will “increase audience and profits over time.” He described AI as helpful for organizing data and making it more searchable, citing examples in nursing job matching and customer service. However, he criticized large language models for being “designed to steal the best of the internet” and argued that a framework is needed to reward content creators and ensure journalism survives. On the 2024 election, Levin called the current choices “horrible” and said he hoped for “a new candidate” who would be “inspiring for people.”
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Joseph Levin's recent appearances.
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Transcript (12 segments)
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Interviewer0:00
Plunging this morning, more than 13%, reporting a miss on the top and bottom lines among a still-weak advertising market. Joining us now in a CNBC exclusive, Joey Levin. Thanks for joining us. So what happened here? We thought we were starting to see some green shoots in advertising.
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Joseph Levin0:20
We are seeing some green shoots, at least in our advertising business. We turned around profits, profits were up a hair on that business, and our outlook for the second half of the year continues to improve. I think people were focused on the back-to-basics theme, and that generally seems to be working. And even in the month of June, we had a little bit of growth. I don't know if we'll hang on to that growth in Q3, but Q4 looks good from a growth perspective.
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Interviewer0:53
I think it was the ad spending that had people wondering if we actually are seeing a real turnaround in ad spending.
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Joseph Levin1:01
I don't think that the ad market overall is strong. I think the ad market overall is still in a not-great shape. I think it's stable, but I don't think there are really signs that it's improving. Some of the performance marketing stuff is working pretty well, because consumer spending still seems to be working pretty well. I think that it was probably more focused on our Angie business.
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Interviewer1:25
So what's the story there? When does that return to growth?
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Joseph Levin1:28
Yeah, I think 2024 is when Angie returns to growth. The story for this year on Angie has been getting the product right and getting the customer experience right, and we've made some changes in the business, in some demand channels. And those were particularly pronounced in Q2. Again, on the profit side, we're up meaningfully year over year in profit. I think we generated $55 million of cash year-to-date at Angie. We're up $110 million in cash year over year at Angie. But you know, the thing will be getting back to growth, and back to revenue growth, not profit growth. And I think that happens in 2024, and 2023 is really rebuilding to get the product in a place that we're really excited about and our customers are really excited about. We're starting to see it on the pro side with Angie. And what we're seeing on the service professional side, they're sticking with us longer, they're paying longer, getting happier, and that means we're moving in the right direction in the product.
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Interviewer2:36
100 days today on the writers strike, and I wonder if it goes through year end, if advertising really has to deal with bigger questions about demand from that business, from the media business at large.
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Joseph Levin2:51
For sure. The strike is bad for spending on entertainment advertisers. We're seeing that, and I expect that to continue as the strike continues. That's not a good segment for dollars right now. There are better segments, but that's not a great one, because of the strike.
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Interviewer3:13
As consumers, we're in a period now where we're watching inflation roll over a bit, you have some real wage growth. Isn't that a positive driver for consumer spend?
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Joseph Levin3:30
Generally, what you're saying is true. Our businesses that have exposure to consumer spending, involved with GM Resorts, with Touro. And we can see it on the performance marketing side and product purchases that happen. Those things are all...
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Joseph Levin3:49
...positive.
