IAC, the parent of Ask.com, has received no offers for the search engine, Chief Executive Barry Diller said Wednesday.

While he would not rule out a sale outright, Mr. Diller said the company had received no offers for the business and has “no desire” to sell the business, the primary driver of IAC’s media and advertising unit, which accounts for more than half of all revenue.

In a conference call following the release of third-quarter results, Mr. Diller, an inveterate deal-maker, also said that the company would be “extremely disciplined” in assessing acquisitions and would seek to move its cash horde to shareholders.

After the spinoff of Ticketmaster, the HSN shopping network, and two other businesses last summer, IAC was left with $1.3 billion in its coffers.

“We’re not going to sit on this cash,” Mr. Diller said, hinting at a stock buyback or dividend. “One way or another, we’re going to repatriate it to our shareholders.”

Analysts have speculated that Ask.com could come into play as Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL seek to compete against Google’s dominant search and advertising platform.

In afternoon trading, share of IAC climbed $1.05, or 6.3 percent, to $17.65.

For the third quarter, IAC posted a 10 percent increase in year-over-year revenue to $369.3 million. The company reported a net loss of $14.8 million and diluted loss per share of $0.11 in results affected by the spinoffs.

Though the company did not issue guidance, Chief Financial Officer Tom McInerney said that search trends for Ask.com “have not been good over the last 30 to 60 days.”

Mr. Diller said the company believes the weakness is attributable to overall malaise in the economy.