A planned sell-off of most of the magazines to U.S. publisher Meredith will not happen. Neither will Time Warner's plan to hang on to Time, Fortune, Money and Sports Illustrated, as seemed likely under the Meredith deal.

Jeff Bewkes, chairman and CEO of Time Warner, said the spin-off would allow Time Warner to focus on its key assets: its film and TV businesses, a portfolio that includes Warner Bros, HBO and New Line Cinema. It's a strategy Time Warner has been systematically executing since 2004, when Warner Music Group was spun off as a separate company.

First they spin out AOL, and now they're spinning out Time?

I'm beginning to believe that conglomerates are not necessarily good for business.