Time Warner Getting Ready to Spin Off AOL?

By Geoff Duncan April 7, 2009

Time Warner Getting Ready to Spin Off AOL?

Way “back in the day” the merger between AOL and Time Warner was seen as the dawning of a new media age, where traditional media companies like Time Warner embraced the Internet, latched it on to powerful content production and distribution, and reaped all alleged “synergies” that would follow. Of course, things didn’t quite work out that way, with AOL and Time Warner’s cultures clashing like milk and vinegar…and eventually leading to the death of Netscape, the birth of Mozilla, the withering of AOL’s walled garden, and a giant media company caught on the horns of being being both a content creator and a media distributor. AOL went from being the dominant name in the partnership to being an also-ran subsidiary, and it’s no secret that Time Warner has been wondering what to do with its AOL operations for some time.

A hint may have come this week, and Time Warner has asked some bondholders to change the terms of their credit with the company, specifically in regard to indentures which could impact the sale or transfer of AOL to another party. The move is called a “consent solicitation,” and basically amounts to Time Warner asking its creditors to rework the terms of the debt they hold in the company in order to facilitate a structure change or sale. As incentive on the deal, Time Warner is offering bondholders a payment of $5 for every $1,000 of debt they hold; to guarantee new agreements, Time Warner is offering HBO Inc. as collateral. The deal would cover about $12.3 billion in outstanding debt, meaning Time Warner has put itself on the hook for paying out almost $62 million to bondholders if they take the deal—and they have until April 15 to make up their minds.

Industry watchers currently place the approximate market value of AOL at somewhere around $2.5 billion, down from nearly $10 billion a year ago, and estimate that Time Warner could substantially improve its earnings sheet if it could divest itself of its AOL unit. Earler this month, Time Warner lured former Google vice president Jeff Bewkes to take over AOL’s operations.

Editors' Recommendations

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Computing

Ends tonight: Get 42% off a year subscription to Microsoft 365

Office 365 Apps on an orange background.

For a complete set of productivity apps that will be familiar to most people, you may want to take advantage of this offer from HP -- a 42% discount on a one-year subscription to Microsoft 365 Personal, which brings its price down to just $40 from its original price of $70. That's $30 in savings on software and services that will be helpful to both professionals and students. You're going to have to hurry in completing the transaction if you're interested though, as there's not much time left before the bargain gets taken down.

Why you should buy Microsoft 365 Personal
Microsoft 365, formerly known as Office 365, is a subscription service that gives you access to all of the brand's most popular productivity apps, among other things. If you sign up for Microsoft 365 Personal, not only will you be able to use Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft OneNote, but you'll also get 1TB of cloud storage where you can save your files and access them from anywhere, as well as protection from Microsoft Defender. Any software updates will be done automatically, so you won't have to keep checking if there are any newer versions yourself.

Computing

HP’s latest laptop sale gets you $400 off the Spectre x360 and more

HP Spectre x360 16 2024 front view showing media mode.

HP is one of the best laptop brands, so if you need a new device, you're going to want to take advantage of the offers in HP's laptop sale. Prices start at $220, and you can enjoy savings of as much as $500, but only if you hurry because we're not sure how much time is remaining before these bargains get taken down. Whether you spot something interesting among our recommendations below, or you want to check out everything that's part of the sale, you need to complete your purchase as soon as possible to make sure that you get an HP laptop for cheaper than usual.

What to buy in HP's laptop sale

Computing

MacBook sale: Get up to $700 off the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro

Apple's 15-inch MacBook Air placed on a desk.

If you've been waiting for MacBook deals on the latest versions of the Apple MacBook Air and Apple MacBook Pro, you should check out the discounts that you can get from Best Buy's MacBook sale. There are a dozen models on sale, with prices starting at $899 and savings of up to $700. You're going to have to be quick with your purchase though -- Apple's devices almost always get sold out quickly whenever their prices get slashed. Check out our recommendations below or browse through all the available deals -- either way, you need to move fast.

What to buy in Best Buy's MacBook sale
The cheapest option in Best Buy's MacBook sale is the 13.6-inch Apple MacBook Air M2 with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, which is instead of $999 for $100 in savings. You can also get the 13.3-inch Apple MacBook Pro M2 with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD for a , for savings of $300 on its original price of $1,299, and the 15-inch Apple MacBook Air M2 with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD also , with the same $300 discount on its sticker price of $1,299.