BTW News Briefs

Media and publishing giant AOL Time Warner (AOLTW) has decided to drop the sale of its book publishing division after the company failed to find an attractive bid, as reported by Reuters. "Frankly, we didn't receive an offer that reflected the true value of the asset," AOLTW spokeswoman Tricia Primrose told Reuters. The news was announced to company employees on Thursday, June 5.

AOLTW, which had been seeking a buyer for months, had originally wanted bids in the neighborhood of $400 million, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. The sale was part of the company's efforts to trim its net debt to $20 million by the end of 2004, Reuters reported. However, the book division attracted only one bid, from Frank Pearl and Perseus LLC, which owns publisher Perseus Books, the Reuters article noted.

An AOL spokesman told the Journal that the company would "happily support" the business going forward.