AOL’s floundering value has prompted Google to demand its $1 billion investment back, or at least most it.

In 2005 the search giant invested the money, but nearly 4 years later and after a reduction from $10 billion to $5.5 billion AOL’s unit valuation, it wants out.

Google has already notified Time Warner, the parent company of AOL, of their plan to “demand registration rights”, forcing Time Warenr to buy back Google’s shares in AOL to the tune of $726 million. If they refuse, AOL will be forced to go public.

Google’s statment says:

“AOL remains an extremely valued partner, and we’ll continue to work closely together to provide their users with the best search experience possible. After careful consideration, we made the decision that we needed to exercise our rights now so we could be in a position to sell our interest when the timing made sense for us.”