Jason Calacanis, the former AOL executive, just posted the following on Twitter:

someone just told me AOL is spinning out with a private equity firm partner and going 20% public.... sounds like a good idea.

A good idea, indeed, if Time Warner can find someone willing to pay the $20 billion valuation Google placed on AOL when it agreed to pay $1 billion for a 5 percent stake in late 2005. Google, which got some rights to approve transactions involving AOL, presumably wouldn't sanction a sale for anything less. AOL, predictably, declined to comment.

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