Dotdash Meredith Reports Q4 Growth With Parent Ready to Spend on M&A, Organic Investments

Dotdash Meredith’s parent company is ready to return to M&A, IAC Chair Barry Diller said. 

Revenue rose 10% for IAC’s biggest division in the fourth quarter from a year earlier with digital revenue expected to increase another 10% in 2025. Cash flow jumped more than $240 million to $289 million for the quarter, setting IAC up for investing in DotDash, looking to purchase assets and returning money to shareholders. 

“There’s a real opportunity inside DDM in all sorts of areas, and that may take some capital,” Diller said on the IAC earnings call today. “We have a clean slate. We don’t have any drag on us. We don’t have any problems… so all of our attention can go to seeking new opportunities, and they always come.” 

IAC is ready to grow after a couple of difficult years where Dotdash Meredith struggled under the heft of integrating Meredith. It originally bought Meredith in 2021, at the time saying adjusted EBITDA from digital assets would exceed $450 million in 2023—in reality, adjusted EBITDA for that year totaled about $243 million. Digital revenue in fact dropped for several quarters after the acquisition. 

For the first quarter of this year, Dotdash sees digital revenue growth in the high-single digits and total Adjusted EBITDA between $40-$45 million. 

Some notable figures for Dotdash Meredith from the quarter include (compared to the year earlier period): 

• Total revenue of $522 million up 10%
• Digital revenue up 10%
• Digital advertising revenue up 3% driven by higher premium ad revenue in the tech and health and pharmaceuticals categories and greater programmatic rates 
• Licensing and other revenue up 19% thanks to the addition of OpenAI (partnership began in May) and improved performance from content syndication partners
• Core Sessions up 3%
• Adjusted EBITDA up 5% overall, up 6% for digital
• Performance marketing revenue increased 22% driven by 39% affiliate commerce growth

 “We still see a constructive ad market, steady Core traffic growth, and expect solid consumer spending (absent a trade war or similar),” the company said in a statement. “D/Cipher, with OpenAI’s technology now integrated, gives us a richer understanding of audience intent across the Dotdash Meredith content universe, and in Q4 we saw continued strong performance for advertisers as a result.” 

Dotdash is introducing D/Cipher+ this year “to provide similar targeting and performance across the entire open web, not just our owned inventory. We’re piloting it with select advertisers now with plans to significantly scale the effort by offering advertisers new ways of transacting beyond premium inventory.”

The company also plans to lean into engaging consumers directly and more deeply with new branded consumer products and experiences this year. 

“Growing our direct relationships with consumers will be essential for Dotdash Meredith, and we have invested heavily in content on our owned sites as well as email, Apple News+, social media, video and events to expand our consumer touch points,” the company said. “ We see an opportunity to cut out the middleman—both from an advertising technology and audience perspective—and own our future directly.” 

Correction: Story updated to reflect core sessions grew 3% versus 8%.