NEW YORK, United States -- US media and entertainment giant Time Warner reported a huge fourth-quarter loss Wednesday and said it was looking at several scenarios for its troubled Internet unit AOL.

Time Warner reported a $16.03-billion loss for the final three months of 2008 compared with a $1.03-billion profit for the same three months a year ago.

It posted a $13.40-billion loss for all of 2008 compared with a $4.38-billion profit the previous year.

The media group said the fourth-quarter loss reflected the effects of a fall in value on acquired assets.

In early January, the company said it would take a write down of $25 billion to reflect declining values at AOL along with cable and publishing operations.

Revenue for 2008 came to $47 billion, up 1.0 percent from 2007 after falling 3.0 percent in the fourth quarter to $12.3 billion.

The fourth-quarter sales performance was attributed to a slowdown in cinema activity and publishing as well as at AOL.

Chairman and chief executive Jeff Bewkes said in a conference call with analysts and reporters that Time Warner was looking at several possibilities for AOL.

"We could spin off all or either of the parts of AOL," he said. "I've also been in discussions on whether AOL would combine any of its assets with some other companies to increase scale on all sides.

"Another possibility -- AOL can stay on its own inside Time Warner," he said.

Bewkes said Time Warner would be "flexible and aggressive" in looking at the options for AOL, but "we're not able for obvious reasons to tell you which of those courses we may end up taking."

"I'm not going to give a timeline for the changes we're considering," he added.

The media giant has in the past explored the possibility of merging AOL with Yahoo! or Microsoft.

Time Warner also confirmed Wednesday that it was cutting the AOL workforce by 10 percent, or 700 jobs, a move aimed at eventually reducing costs by $250 million a year.

AOL revenue fell by 20 percent to $4.2 billion in 2008 and advertising revenue fell by 18 percent in the fourth quarter alone.

Besides AOL, Time Warner owns Time newsweekly and other magazines, the Warner Bros. movie studio and the CNN and HBO television networks among other properties.

Time Warner also owns Time Warner Cable and the company said Wednesday that it expects the separation of Time Warner Cable, the second-largest cable television operator in the country, to be completed in the first quarter of 2009.