February 06, 2008 at 2:00 pm by Tom Lydon
Big changes are afoot at Time Warner Inc. (TWX) and Wall Street seems to like them so far - will the internet and media exchange traded funds (ETFs) follow?
The company’s new CEO, Jeff Bewkes, announced that Time Warner and AOL will split, reports the Associated Press. He wants to divide AOL’s online access and advertising business, and possibly spin off the Time Warner cable division. After the news, Time Warner’s shares jumped 4.3% in midday trading.
AOL’s attractiveness to potential bidders is up in the air, though. After Microsoft (MSFT) made its bid for Yahoo (YHOO), it raised the possibility that two potential bidders would be eliminated and that a major online advertising power would rise if the deal were to go through.
How times have changed: Time Warner agreed to be purchased by AOL, then known as America Online, in 2000. It was the height of the dot-com boom and the ill-advised “You’ve Got Mail” was still fresh in our minds and the said phrase was ubiquitous. We’re glad that’s over.
ETFs that are heavily weighted in Time Warner are the PowerShares Dynamic Media (PBS, 4.9%) and Internet HOLDRs (HHH; 11.3%).
Tags: HHH, Media, PBS, Technology
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