Liberty Media Eyes AOL Assets

NEW YORK, August 12:
Liberty Media chairman John Malone has indicated that the company would
consider swapping its stake in Time Warner for AOL’s dial-up business, though
no such proposal has been made.

According to the Financial
Times, Liberty Media’s
shareholding in Time Warner is valued at $1.64 billion, which is just slightly
above the $1.5 billion valuation for AOL’s access business. Malone suggested
though that holding a cash-generating asset would be “attractive” for the
company.

Last week, Time Warner’s
chief executive, Jeff Bewkes, said that the conglomerate had completed the work
necessary to split AOL’s declining Internet access operation from the online
advertising platform, yet most analysts had seen EarthLink as the only likely
buyer for the dial-up business. Time Warner has not commented on the prospect.

—By Kristin
Brzoznowski