NEW YORK - The recession took a bite out of IAC/InterActiveCorp in the first quarter, as revenue fell 22 percent in the Internet company's media and advertising unit, which includes Ask.com.

The New York-based company, headed by Barry Diller, said Wednesday that in the first three months it lost $28.4 million, or 19 cents per share.

This compares with a profit of $52.8 million, or 38 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. However, that quarter included income from operations that IAC has since spun off - home shopping network HSN Inc., time-share business Interval Leisure Group Inc., ticketing service Ticketmaster and lending and real estate business Tree.com Inc.

When excluding special items, IAC lost 2 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a profit of 1 cent per share.

IAC said revenue fell 10 percent to $332 million, just beyond the $330 million analysts expected.

The harsh advertising climate, being felt across the media industry, also led to declines at IAC's online city guide Citysearch. Besides being hurt by the economy, revenue in IAC's media and advertising unit was decreased by IAC's decision to remove Ask "toolbars" and search boxes from non-IAC sites and place them mostly on its own sites. The company makes more money from putting these on its own sites, and started this shift last year after renewing a deal through which Google Inc. sells ads on IAC sites.

Revenue at IAC's Match unit, which includes the Match.com and Chemistry.com dating sites, dipped 1 percent to $90.1 million even though Match's paid subscribers rose 6 percent to 1.4 million. Revenue per subscriber dipped 15 percent in international markets because of strength in the dollar. That means transactions done in other currencies translate into fewer dollars.

As in the prior quarter, IAC saw growth in two units. Revenue in emerging businesses, a unit that includes Web sites like ShoeBuy and RushmoreDrive.com, a search engine focused on the black community, rose 1 percent to $44 million. And ServiceMagic, which runs Web sites that match homeowners with home-improvement contractors, saw revenue climb 8 percent to $31.4 million.

IAC also said Wednesday that it had purchased local restaurant guide Urbanspoon in February for an undisclosed amount. Besides operating Web restaurant guides across a number of cities, Urbanspoon offers a popular free application for Apple's iPhone.

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.