"Why are a majority of the same directors who signed off on the disastrous AOL merger still steering the corporate ship?"

Mr. Icahn is especially skeptical of Time Warner's board, most of whose 15 members voted in favor of the AOL merger.

"If the problems with the EMI deal were resolved either way, then that would remove the major impediment" to approval of the AOL merger, the official said.

Disney had backed off a deal that was near completion when the AOL merger was announced.

A. I used to work, way before the Time Warner and AOL merger, at Pathfinder, which was Time Warner's interactive edition.

"It is no secret he felt less than totally at peace when his responsibilities were modified on the heels of the AOL merger," Mr. Parsons said.

An AOL merger would also provide a graceful exit from MSN's stagnant dial-up Internet service business, which still has several million subscribers.

The 2001 AOL merger was 'the biggest mistake in corporate history', believes Time Warner chief Jeff Bewkes.

What he transformed in the AOL merger was $200 billion of his shareholders' money into nothing.

Skeptics don't care whether Gates planned the handover before the AOL merger.