• CNet, Tuesday, April 7, 2009 12 PM

Bloggers, industry critics, even Time Warner insiders have been talking up an AOL spin off for years. Now, according to The Wall Street Journal, it looks as though Time Warner management is finally paving the way for this to become reality. Aside from hiring new Chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong, Time Warner this week announced that it would transfer $12.3 billion of AOL debt to HBO, "effectively lifting a weight from the business and enabling (AOL) to move off on its own," says CNet's Caroline McCarthy. Bondholders have until the end of the day on April 15 to provide consent for the transfer.

However, an analyst tells the Journal that an immediate move for an IPO is unlikely, as AOL's ad revenues are still falling, and the overall market climate is less than ideal.

As McCarthy notes, "AOL's slow drift away from its parent company has been at about the speed of plate tectonics; these "fresh start for AOL" moves are nothing new." Meanwhile, AOL has been moving into three quasi-standalone businesses: advertising (Platform A), social networking (the People Networks division headed by Bebo), and content (the MediaGlow network).

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