Dividend.com: TWX Kisses AOL Goodbye

Time Warner to Finally Spin Off AOL

Media giant Time Warner(TWX) said Thursday that it plans to spin off its AOL segment, ending a hapless eight-year merger that failed to produce many positive results for the two companies.

AOL will be spun off from Time Warner toward the end of 2009, and operate as a separate company. The new entity will be run by former Google(GOOG) ad executive Tim Armstrong, whom AOL brought in back in March in an attempt to salvage the once-mighty company.

Time Warner, which owns 95% of AOL, will buy out Google's 5% stake in the third quarter for an undisclosed amount and then spin off the company later in the year. ...