New York: According to analysts from UBS, Time Warner Inc could spin off a stake in online division AOL or merge it with another Internet company as early as this year, a move that would boost the value of the world''s largest media company.

However, Time Warner says it has no plans to sell or spin off any part of it and the company has a great new strategy, which was working well.

According to UBS, the prospects for an outright sale of AOL this year were high as the internet company tries globalise and this could be best achieved through a partnership or merger.

Time Warner had earlier told an an investor conference that it had no divestment plans for AOL and was confident of its revamped strategy to boost online advertising revenue by offering most of its services for free.

When Time Warner spun off a 16-per cent stake in its Time Warner Cable division it had said that it could some day consider spinning off a stake in the AOL unit to help it acquire other companies.

AOL''s implied value based on UBS''s estimates shows the unit is undervalued compared with Internet rivals like Google Inc. and Yahoo! and is worth more spun off or folded into another company than as solely a part of Time Warner, he said.