Perennial questions about AOL, Time Warner’s troubled internet division, will take on greater urgency this Wednesday when the media conglomerate announces its fourth-quarter earnings in the wake of Microsoft’s $44.6bn offer for Yahoo.

Microsoft’s gambit comes little more than a month after Jeff Bewkes took over as Time Warner chief executive, and is sure to influence his deliberations as he attempts to breathe new life into a company whose shares have been flat for the past five years – held down in no small part by problems at AOL.