Michael Morris, an
analyst at UBS AG believes AOL could be a separate company as soon as six months from now. "A very important piece of the investment thesis is the ability to excel in the cable-network and content
businesses, and for the company to do that I think they need to spend less effort and energy on AOL," Morris said in a phone interview. AOL will be "the No. 1 most important thing on the call." Ed
Adler, a spokesman for Time Warner, declined to comment on the timing or structure of a possible AOL separation.
Time Warner hired Tim Armstrong, who previously ran Google Inc.'s ad sales and operations teams in the Americas, to run AOL in March, a move that many saw as making a spinoff more likely. AOL's ad sales fell 18% in the fourth quarter, following a 6% decline in the third. Morris expects a 20% decline in the first quarter.