"In 2000, a new company called AOL Time Warner, with Steve Case as chairman, was created when AOL purchased Time Warner for US$164 billion. [...] The shareholde

"In 2000, a new company called AOL Time Warner, with Steve Case as chairman, was created when AOL purchased Time Warner for US$164 billion. [...] The shareholders of AOL owned 55% of the new company while Time Warner shareholders owned only 45%, thus the smaller AOL bought out the far larger Time Warner." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Warner#2000 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Warner#2000 So yes, AOL bought Time Warner, not the other way around.