Back in 2005, Google invested a cool billion dollars for a five percent stake in AOL as part of an online advertising alliance and strategic partnership. Turns out that may now have been the savviest of investments: now that Time Warner is getting ready to spin AOL back into its own independent company by the end of the year, it’s bought out Google’s share of the operation for a mere $238 million, according to a regulatory filing with the SEC.
The buyoff price implies that the spun off AOL Inc.’s minimum perceived market value is about $5.7 billion. Time Warner executed the transaction on July 8, 2009.
AOL CEO Tim Armstrong—a former Google vice president—the newly independent AOL will set itself up primarily as an online advertising firm, casting doubt on the future of its myriad of online service offerings—including email and instant messaging services, as well as its recently-acquired social networking platform Bebo.
AOL says it expects to incur about $90 million in additional restructuring costs as part of the spinoff process; the company has already spent nearly $60 million in restructuring during the first quarter of 2009, mainly centered around layoffs and shutting down some operations.
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