Talk of a Yahoo-AOL combo has once again heated up, but what becomes of the access business? Its final home could still be Liberty Media (NSDQ: LINTA). CEO John Malone told the FT that his company and Time Warner have had “limited talks” to swap the declining (but profitable) dial-up business in exchange for Liberty’s stake in Time Warner (NYSE: TWX). Of course, as Malone notes: “Time Warner still needs to divide the business.” Yeah, the process of splitting access and portal isn’t exactly “done” yet.

The other party that’s clearly interested in AOL access is EarthLink, which has had some success in improving dial-up profits by cutting costs. Liberty, whose decisions are frequently guided by tax issues, has a totally different agenda: It wants to swap its non-cash generating (and declining) shares of Time Warner, to an asset that actually returns it re-investable cash. Of course, it’s not clear that Time Warner actually wants to or needs to sell dial-up. As CEO Jeff Bewkes has noted before, whether the company chooses to keep AOL’s future cash flows, or sell that off for a lump sum, is mainly about accounting, not strategy. Of course, if they do get rid of the AOL portal (either via Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) or someone else), ridding themselves of access would finally lay to rest the last ghosts the whole debacle.

• AOL’s Dial-Up and Portal Split Done; Cue Up the Candidates
• Liberty’s Malone: Would Consider TW Stock Swap For AOL Access
• EarthLink To Aggressively Pursue AOL Dial-Up Merger; Other M&A Hopes