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Time Warner may or may not want to get rid of AOL, according to a new report.  It's taken some preparatory steps towards a sale, however, and figured out how the unit could be split up and unloaded as two different pieces.

The dial-up business would go to one buyer.  The advertising and content arm would go to another.  The exact division of finances, employees, and other things has been arrived at thanks to a request from Time Warner's CEO, Jeff Bewkes.

 

As for what entities might want to acquire AOL's halves, Merissa Marr states, "After months of off-and-on talks with both Microsoft and Yahoo, Time Warner continues to hold informal discussions with the two companies, according to people familiar with the situation."  These discussions are focused on advertising and content, with valuations of $3-$4 billion getting tossed around.

The dial-up unit has an analyst-provided price tag in the $2-$3 billion range, and is supposedly looking attractive to Earthlink.

Sounds interesting, eh?  Time Warner's stock is already up 0.98 percent this morning on the Marr report alone.  The corporation will release its second-quarter earnings results on Wednesday, so we should hear more solid information then.