Time Warner has completed the financial work necessary to split AOL’s business into two: one its fast-declining dial-up business, and the other one is a mix of its portal and advertising businesses. The process was started earlier this year, and was delayed by about a month, but will now be announced this Wednesday along with TW’s Q208 earnings, reports WSJ. The company has indicated it wants to sell off the dial-up part, and EarthLink indicated last week it wants to buy it. As for the portal-ad side of the business, with the Yahoo-Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) possibilities diminished, AOL (NYSE: TWX) is a target for both the companies.

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Talks for either of the divisions have been held back by uncertainty about how revenues and liabilities would be split between the two sides, which complicated putting a value on the businesses, the story says. AOL-Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) talks have valued AOL’s portal-ad business at around $10 billion, while Time Warner’s current stock price—around $14—suggests a value of no more than $3 billion to $4 billion for the ad-sales and content businesses, analysts say. For the dial-up part, analysts value the business at only $2 billion to $3 billion, though TW would likely want more.

Pic courtesy: ellessu.