Google sells $1 billion stake in AOL for $283 million

In anticipation of AOL's spin off from parent company Time Warner, Google has sold its 5% stake in AOL back to Time Warner for almost 75% less than it paid for it in 2006.

According to an SEC filing released today, Time Warner paid $283 million for Google's 5% share of AOL on July 8, which Google spent a billion dollars on in 2006.

The deal brought mutual strength to AOL and Google's advertising platforms and outsourced AOL's searches to Google, but at the end of last year, Google wrote down $726 million of the investment.