Marriot International Inc. has just announced plans to make a separate timeshare company from its current division by means of tax-free dividend which the company will be paying its shareholders before the year ends. The decision comes after the company reported a $173-million fourth quarter net income from a revenue amount of $3.6 billion. That amount shows considerable growth from the previous year's numbers.

Meanwhile, the company's timeshare division earned around $1.2 billion revenue last year. That number makes up almost 10 percent of the total revenue earned by the company. With around $1.5 billion worth of inventory unsold, the division has a total of 71 properties, over 10,000 employees and 400,000 owners.

Also playing a key role in Marriot's decision is pressure from its investors to place focus on its timeshare business. FBR Capital Markets gaming and lodging analyst C. Patrick Scholes explains that "the financial crisis slowed the ability of companies to develop timeshare properties and it made it more difficult for buyers to borrow money to make these purchases."