AOL founder Case quits Time Warner

WASHINGTON – AOL founder Steve Case said on Monday he was quitting the board of Time Warner Inc.to cap a turbulent five years since he orchestrated the disastrous mega-merger of the media and Internet groups.

The 47-year-old executive said that he was leaving Time Warner to devote more time to his new company, Revolution, which has a quixotic blend of investments that ranges from spa resorts to healthcare planning. Describing Time Warner as a “great company”, he said: “Leaving Time Warner’s board will give me a greater opportunity to grow Revolution, including avoiding any potential conflicts of interest as Revolution moves into new areas.Case engineered the takeover by Internet service provider America OnLine of Time Warner, leveraging AOL’s inflated stock value at the height of the dot-com boom to take control of the much larger media and entertainment group.The merger was trumpeted as the ultimate alliance between the new and old economies, a deal that would place Time Warner at the cutting edge of the digital future.It did not turn out that way.From a peak of US$290 billion when the merger was announced in January 2000, the market value of the new company collapsed by more than half within two years, as the dot-com boom turned to bust.Case was replaced as chairman and chief executive of AOL-Time Warner by Dick Parsons in 2003, when the company’s name also reverted to Time Warner, symbolically undoing the spectacular takeover.Case, who will remain one of Time Warner’s biggest individual shareholders, said he was “pleased to see a renewed focus on AOL at Time Warner”.-Nampa-AFPDescribing Time Warner as a “great company”, he said: “Leaving Time Warner’s board will give me a greater opportunity to grow Revolution, including avoiding any potential conflicts of interest as Revolution moves into new areas.Case engineered the takeover by Internet service provider America OnLine of Time Warner, leveraging AOL’s inflated stock value at the height of the dot-com boom to take control of the much larger media and entertainment group.The merger was trumpeted as the ultimate alliance between the new and old economies, a deal that would place Time Warner at the cutting edge of the digital future.It did not turn out that way.From a peak of US$290 billion when the merger was announced in January 2000, the market value of the new company collapsed by more than half within two years, as the dot-com boom turned to bust.Case was replaced as chairman and chief executive of AOL-Time Warner by Dick Parsons in 2003, when the company’s name also reverted to Time Warner, symbolically undoing the spectacular takeover.Case, who will remain one of Time Warner’s biggest individual shareholders, said he was “pleased to see a renewed focus on AOL at Time Warner”.-Nampa-AFP