AOL a dirty word in Time Warner – it's official

The AOL Time Warner board of directors voted officially today to change the name of the company back to Time Warner Inc.

The name change will come into effect in the course of the next few weeks and the newly-monikered Time Warner will see its New York stock exchange ticker symbol convert to TWX from AOL.

Dick Parsons, Time Warner CEO, said in a statement: "We believe that our new name better reflects the portfolio of our valuable businesses and ends any confusion between our corporate name and the America Online brand name for our investors, partners and the public."

The original name change took place in January 2001 after AOL, at the time enjoying the dot-com bubble, merged with Time Warner. Pressure for the AOL part of the name to be dropped is thought to be a move by the company to put the dwindling stock prices and internet bubble associations behind it.