According to reports, Time Warner is 'dumping' AOL after nearly 10 years of trying to build a 'new-age media empire'.The separation will spin out AOL as a separate Internet company, to be run by former Google exec Tim Armstrong.
Time Warner owns 95% of AOL and will buy out Google's 5% stake during the third quarter.
"We believe AOL will then have a better opportunity to achieve its full potential as a leading independent Internet company," Time Warner chief executive Jeff Bewkes said.
In 2001, Time Warner paid a mind-boggling $147 billion for AOL, eventually dropping AOL from its corporate name.Much of the original AOL revenue came from providing dial-up access, a business that peaked in 2002 at 26.7 million subscribers. But broadband whittled away at dial-up with AOL having 6.3 million dial-up subscribers at the end of the last quarter, laying off thousands of employees...
