U.S. media giant Time Warner Inc. will set aside 145 million dollars to settle final securities- fraud claims relating to its 2001 merger with AOL, bringing the amount spent on AOL-related shareholder lawsuits to about 3.75 billion dollars, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

The reserve is the third created by the company to deal with legal liabilities stemming from the merger, the report quoted a company executive as saying.

Time Warner last year set a 3 billion dollar in 2005 and added another 615 million dollars to the reserve late last year. In addition, the company has paid 510 million dollars to the federal government in fines and to settle a Justice Department lawsuit also relating to AOL.

Most of the reserve money -- about 2.5 billion dollars -- went to settle a class action suit in 2005. Many shareholders opted out of that settlement, however, forcing Time Warner to cut separate deals with plaintiffs and spend more money than it had anticipated, said the report.

Time Warner's stock plummeted in the wake of the AOL deal in 2000, prompting a flurry of government investigations and civil lawsuits. Many shareholders claimed AOL had misled investors before the merger by inflating its advertising revenue to boost its stock price.

Source: Xinhua