At a time when most companies are scouting partners to shore up each other, Time Warner is spinning off the AOL internet division as a separate company. Time Warner says its board has approved plans to spin off its AOL internet division as a separate company by the end of this year. Time Warner will buy the 5% of AOL it does not already own from Google, then offer the firm to its own shareholders.

AOL and Time Warner combined in 2001 in what has become one of the least successful mergers in history.

Time Warner has recruited the head of Google advertising to lead the efforts on AOL. Incidentally, AOL had lost out mainly to Google only.