The big news today is Barry Diller's decision to split up IAC/Interactive. The two buckets will essentially be retail and travel, with Ticketmaster and Lending Tree going in one camp and Hotels.com, Expedia and Hotwire going in the other.

This is great news. Companies lose value when they are blanketed under conglomerate bureaucracy. The loss in value of a company when it is submerged in delusions of synergy--as much as 15% in some cases--is called the diversification discount. When a business is let free from monolithic empire-builders, it realizes more of its true value and is not cramped down by Cablevision-style mismanagement.

Hotels.com, Expedia and Hotwire under one umbrella makes sense. I hope the next move is to split up Ticketmaster and Lending Tree, by selling one of those businesses or doing yet another spinoff.

For now, this conglomerate breakup story is the best news of the day.