I hate AOL.

'Fighter' Case throws in the towel

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
THE NEW YORK TIMES

NEW YORK -- Steve Case, the former chief executive of AOL who engineered its acquisition of Time Warner, has resigned as chairman of the combined company, bowing to shareholder anger over the disappointing results of the merger. He will remain as a board member.

Case's sudden resignation is the culmination of an 18-year rise on the crest of the Internet boom that took him from founding an obscure start-up betting on the future of an unknown medium to becoming the top executive of the world's largest media company. Now he becomes the latest Internet visionary to resign from the helm of a major communications conglomerate, following the departures of Jean-Marie Messier from the chairmanship of Vivendi-Universal and Thomas Middelhoff from the top job at Bertelsmann.

Over the last year, Case has come under mounting criticism from shareholders, board members and executives over the company's deteriorating stock price and federal accounting investigations at his former company AOL, which has become an albatross dragging down the combined company's stock price. Yesterday, Case said he resigned so that the simmering debate over his role at the company would not distract its management.

In a statement released last night, Case said: "Given that some shareholders continue to focus their disappointment with the company's post-merger performance on me personally, I have concluded that we should take steps now to avoid the possibility of that effort hindering our ability to pull together as a team and focus fully on our businesses."

He acknowledged in an interview that he was unhappy to be going.

"If nobody had raised any concerns and there wasn't speculation and distraction over whether or not I would continue to serve as chairman, I would prefer being chairman," he said. "I love this company, and I would love to remain as chairman."

Despite the mounting criticism, Case's decision -- or at least the timing of it -- came as a surprise to many, even to those who know him. He had previously indicated to colleagues that he intended to fight on, hoping to improve the company's performance and win back the allegiance of its investors and executives. But he faced a potentially stormy battle leading up to the company's annual board meeting in May.

"I am a fighter," Case said last night, "If it was just about tenacity, I will assure you I would continue to fight on, but it can't just be about Steve Case and his character, if you will, it has to be about what is best for the company."

Case said he would continue serving as chairman until the company's annual meeting in May and he would remain as a director and the co-chairman of the board's strategy committee after that.

Case said he reached his decision alone Friday night, after deliberating over the holidays. He called the company's chief executive, Richard Parsons, Saturday morning with the news.

Yesterday, Parsons said he accepted Case's decision.

"I was surprised but I understood it when he went through his reasoning," Parsons said, "He did the right thing."

Three people close to the board said that there had been no precipitating effort to force Case out.

Franklin Raines, a director of AOL Time Warner, the chief executive of Fannie Mae and an AOL director before the merger, said last night Case was correct that the issue of his tenure would become an increasing distraction leading up the annual meeting, when shareholders vote to re-elect directors.

"All anybody would be talking about is, how many votes will Case get?" he said. He added that because most directors win with 98 percent of the votes cast, even a shortfall of 10 or 20 percentage points for Case would have looked like a black eye.

In recent months, several of AOL Time Warner's largest shareholders -- including Ted Turner, vice chairman of AOL Time Warner; John Malone, chairman of Liberty Media; and Gordon Crawford, portfolio manager at Capital Research and Management -- have pushed for Case's ouster, people close to the board have said. Several directors including Turner; Faye Vincent, the former commissioner of baseball; and Stephen Bollenbach, the chairman of Hilton Hotels, have also been outspoken critics of Case's role, these people said. But under the terms of his contract, Case needed the support of only a few directors to hold onto his position.

That's great!  I HATE AOL too!  I kinda wish he'd stay though...so he could keep taking the company down with him :D

I used to hate aol, until I found out that it was dial-up I actually hated. I still kinda  do.

Once you go to cable or dsl it's easy to hate dial up but I did the AOL thing once and couldn't stand the pop-ups and flashing banners everywhere.  It was to crowded and annoying for me.

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I used to hate aol, until I found out that it was dial-up I actually hated. I still kinda  do.
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