Time Warner has confirmed plans to proceed with the complete legal and structural separation of AOL (aka - America Online). Following the proposed transaction, AOL would be an independent, publicly traded company. Presently AOL UK's Internet access customers are already owned by The Carphone Warehouse ( TalkTalk ), though until now its content has remained under the control of Time Warner.


The move is perhaps long overdue, with AOL having lost a lot of its edge to a far more aggressive market of online content services and social networking. The group, which was once home to one of the most dominant online portals, exists today as merely a shadow of its former self.

Never the less - AOL's separate UK ISP division, which uniquely links its broadband customers directly into content services, has managed to retain many of its users over the years and remains a competitive force.