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Bewkes: AOL Fate To Be Decided Soon

Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes told investors on Wednesday that the future of AOL would be decided "fairly soon." The media giant has been in talks with Microsoft and Yahoo for much of the year about different deals involving its Web portal. Sources tell the Financial Times that one scenario would see Yahoo and AOL merge, with Time Warner holding a stake in the joint company.

"All of the players, including us, are exploring what kind of scale combination would improve the operating and strategic positioning of AOL and other Internet players," Bewkes said at a Goldman Sachs media conference. "That probably will get decided fairly soon."

AOL has been dragging down Time Warner's stock price since the day the companies merged in 2001. Offloading the beleaguered Web company would allow Time Warner to concentrate on its core content business, which Bewkes said would become particularly important given the recent turmoil in the financial sector. "The economy is the biggest strategic question in everyone's mind. "It certainly has been a big question on media valuations. But it hasn't had as big of an effect on Time Warner." Not yet, anyway.

Read the whole story at Financial Times »

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