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AOL and Time Warner prepare for joint IPO?

Marguerite Reardon Former senior reporter
Marguerite Reardon started as a CNET News reporter in 2004, covering cellphone services, broadband, citywide Wi-Fi, the Net neutrality debate and the consolidation of the phone companies.
Marguerite Reardon

The chatter over Time Warner's spin-off of AOL is getting louder. On Wednesday, the New York Post published a story saying that Time Warner plans to include AOL in the spin-off of its cable division. Time Warner is planning to issue separate stock for Time Warner Cable to help it buy assets from Adelphia.

Time Warner executives have not confirmed the plan to include AOL in this initial public offering, but CEO Dick Parsons has previously said that the company might consider spinning off AOL. Even though AOL has lost millions of subscribers over the past couple years, Parsons has said the company has no plans to sell it.

Pairing AOL with Time Warner Cable makes sense, especially given AOL's recent strategy to start bundling its service with cable providers again. Just recently, it announced a new deal with Covad that bundles AOL service with Covad DSL service.