• CNBC.com, Friday, November 2, 2007 11 AM

CNBC's David Faber has the scoop (although by now it's not necessarily a surprise) that Time Warner is indeed preparing to split apart some of its properties in order to focus more on its media and movie businesses. Among those to be split is AOL, although Faber says Time Warner only plans to offload "parts" of the Web portal/online services firm.

What does "parts" mean? Faber talks very little about AOL, but he does mention the company's dial-up business. What in the world could that be worth? Surely no one wants to buy a money-losing relic of the Internet's past--it certainly wouldn't succeed as a public company. However, as a private enterprise, AOL's ISP business will continue to generate depreciating returns until its customers realize that DSL only costs $10 more per month.

It's still unclear whether Time Warner plans to unhitch the rest of AOL, too, but the release of AOL's ISP unit is set to follow releases of Time Warner Cable and Time Warner's publishing business. The changes should all pan before the end of 2008, according to Faber. Incumbent Time Warner chief Jeff Bewkes is understood to be behind the paring down of the lumbering media giant, whose stock responded spectacularly to his unveiling as the company's new CEO.

Read the whole story at CNBC.com »