Expedia Cuts Ad Spend From $5 Billion To $1 Billion

“It’s the tale of two cities for me.,” says IAC and Expedia Chairman Barry Diller in a CNBC interview. “On one hand, I have IAC see which is advertising, home services, and dating. Of course, the crisis hurts some but it’s stable. IAC is very well-capitalized. So I’ve got all these hungry players in my company who want to go out and buy things and are very aggressive and are thinking of this opportunity. “

“While on the other hand, I have Expedia, which has no revenue,” says Diller. “It’s a bit of a weird kind of constant imbalance. But as far as advertising is concerned at Expedia, for instance, we spend $5 billion a year in advertising. We won’t spend $1 billion dollars in advertising probably this year. You just rip that across everything and there you are.”

Diller says that the travel industry is a proxy. “Yes, there are some basic things that are worthwhile to advertise during this period. But we haven’t seen anything economically this quarter. Why anybody is poring over these first-quarter numbers is clueless to me. How the market can go up in this atmosphere is insane. But as you get into the second quarter you’re going to see advertising (cuts) across the boards. Why would it sustain?”