AOL and Time Warner have formally split after almost 10 years as one company.
Under the terms of the deal, qualifying shareholders will receive one AOL share for each 11 Time Warner they own.
AOL shares will begin trading on Thursday when AOL's chief executive, Tim Armstrong, will ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
But the BBC reports the company will be worth only a tiny fraction of what it once was. Its market value is put at about $US2.5 billion - 10% of its value at the firm's height.
The marriage of Time Warner with AOL in 2001 was dubbed the "deal of the century".
But the dial-up internet model has since been superseded by broadband.
AOL had 26 million dial-up customers then, now it has 5.4 million.
