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Time Warner Plans AOL Spin-Off

New CEO also considers selling Time Warner Cable

By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff

Posted Feb 6, 2008 11:44 AM CST
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(Newser) – In an effort to revive the company's slumping stock, Time Warner's new CEO plans to break up AOL, keeping its growing online ad properties, but unloading its increasingly obsolete dial-up Internet service provider. Operating income at AOL fell 70% in the fourth quarter, as the company continued to lose Internet-access customers, the Wall Street Journal reports. 

CEO Jeff Bewkes also told investors today he will consider selling or spinning off fast-growing Time Warner Cable, and he sees room for cost cutting at the corporate level and at New Line Cinema. With today's announcements, Bewkes is aiming to give Wall Street the shakeup it has been asking for; the company's "miserable" stock performance, as one analyst put it to the Washington Post, baffles observers, given the value of Time Warner's entertainment properties.

The Time Warner building is photographed Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2007, in New York. Weak results from AOL tempered an otherwise strong quarter at Time Warner Inc., the company reported Wednesday, as gains from cable TV and the latest Harry Potter movie helped the media conglomerate meet Wall Street expectations. (AP...
The Time Warner building is photographed Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2007, in New York. Weak results from AOL tempered an otherwise strong quarter at Time Warner Inc., the company reported Wednesday, as gains...   (Associated Press)
The Time Warner building is photographed Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2007, in New York. Weak results from AOL tempered an otherwise strong quarter at Time Warner Inc., the company reported Wednesday, as gains from cable TV and the latest Harry Potter movie helped the media conglomerate meet Wall Street expectations (AP...
The Time Warner building is photographed Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2007, in New York. Weak results from AOL tempered an otherwise strong quarter at Time Warner Inc., the company reported Wednesday, as gains...   (Associated Press)
The Time Warner building is photographed Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2007, in New York. Weak results from AOL tempered an otherwise strong quarter at Time Warner Inc., the company reported Wednesday, as gains from cable TV and the latest Harry Potter movie helped the media conglomerate meet Wall Street expectations. (AP...
The Time Warner building is photographed Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2007, in New York. Weak results from AOL tempered an otherwise strong quarter at Time Warner Inc., the company reported Wednesday, as gains...   (Associated Press)
In this Friday, Oct. 5, 2007 photo, Jeffrey Bewkes, President and Chief Operating Officer, Time Warner attends the New Line Cinema 40th Anniversary Gala to benefit The Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini)
In this Friday, Oct. 5, 2007 photo, Jeffrey Bewkes, President and Chief Operating Officer, Time Warner attends the New Line Cinema 40th Anniversary Gala to benefit The Film Society of Lincoln Center in...   (Associated Press)
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Time Warner profit up in fourth quarter
Reuters

AOL acquires buy.at
CNN

 
Wall Street • Time Warner • AOL • Jeffrey Bewkes • cable industry • Time Warner Cable

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