Time Warner announced today official plans to spin off AOL.com around the end of this year.

Time Warner’s board is expected to meet today and approve the plan.

Once completed, the deal would once again make AOL an independent, publicly traded company.

AOL bought Time Warner in 2001 for $147 billion dollars which has largely been regarded as one of the worst convinced mergers of all time.

After the merger Time Warner was renamed for a short period as AOL-Time Warner.

Time Warner owns 95 percent of AOL, Google owns 5%.

Time Warner plans to purchase Google’s stake then separate AOL.