AOL Spinoff From Time Warner Happening on Dec. 9
The long-anticipated AOL spinoff from Time Warner Inc. (TWX) will happen on Dec. 9. The following day, AOL will trade under the ticker symbol ‘AOL.’
Time Warner stockholders will get one share of AOL for each 11 shares of Time Warner they own, the Wall Street Journal reported.
AOL will shift its focus from dial-up Internet access to online media content – which it already aggregates from hundreds of sources – and display advertising, as well as unspecified technology, as it tries to secure its share of online marketing money.
The new directions will place more onus on AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, a former Google advertising executive who is working to turn around the once-dominant Internet company’s fortunes. AOL has watched its dial-up subscriptions and advertising revenue plummet for the past two years.
The Time Warner-AOL merger from the early years of the tech boom soon turned into a major bust; Time Warner overpaid for AOL and, as the Wall Street Journal points out, is viewed as one of the most disastrous deals in corporate history.
