By now, Time Warner’s spinoff of AOL (NYSE: TWX) is almost a foregone conclusion, even though it hasn’t actually happened yet. Today, the parent company took another step in that direction, announcing in an SEC filing that it would try to amend the terms of about $12 billion in debt that forbid the company from transferring or selling assets under the AOL unit. In the filing, Time Warner offers the holders of that debt $5 for every $1,000 of debt outstanding and guarantees the debt with assets from its HBO division instead of AOL, as is currently the case.

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Throughout AOL’s many re-orgs, the constant has been Time Warner’s desire to sell the unit or spin it off as its own public company. For Time Warner, the problem has been that AOL’s dial-up business has long dragged down growth. Many speculated that the hiring of Tim Armstrong as chairman and CEO suggested that AOL would be split off as a public company because Armstrong would only leave Google (NSDQ: GOOG) to head a public company.