• Financial Times, Thursday, December 7, 2006 11:01 AM

AOL may eventually be on its way out of Time Warner. The overhaul of AOL's senior management and business strategy means that Time Warner could be primping the Web giant for a spinoff. Jeff Bewkes, the company's president and COO, said the repositioning of its senior management sets the Internet unit up to be "a standalone company."

Bewkes said the strategy shift to an ad-supported model is bringing in enough revenue that by the middle of next year, the company would be able to project future earnings, which have been in decline for years.

"AOL might benefit [from a spinoff]," Mr Bewkes said at an investor conference. "[But] there is too much upside for us to [sell it] right now ." The move to drop its ISP business has resulted in more people visiting AOL.com and its email and messaging services. As a result, ad sales grew 46% from the second to the third quarter.

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