Time Warner Announces Magazine Spin-off

Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) is shedding more weight, announcing on Wednesday that the company will be spinning off its magazine business, Time Inc, into its own legally separated, publicly traded entity. Time Warner spun off its web arm, AOL (NYSE:AOL), in 2009.

What was once one of the largest mergers in history has found itself disbanding divisions and slimming down into a more agile, efficient company. “After a thorough review of options, we believe that a separation will better position both Time Warner and Time Inc. A complete spin-off of Time Inc. provides strategic clarity for Time Warner, enabling us to focus entirely on our television networks and film and TV production businesses, and improve our growth profile. Time Inc. will also benefit from the flexibility and focus of being a stand-alone public company, and will now be able to attract a more natural stockholder base. As we saw with the prior spin-offs of Time Warner Cable and AOL, we expect the separation will create additional value for our stockholders,” Time Warner Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bewkes said in the company’s press release.

The spin-off for AOL was hugely beneficial for the web services company. Under its own leadership, it posted its first quarterly profit in eight years last month…