Stephen Case Resigns

[johnnymk]

Where would the Internet be without him?

What an uncanny coincidennce!! Tommy Boomfiger posted a similar story one minute before I posted this one. Amazing!!

AOL Chairman Quits His Post Amid Criticism
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK


Stephen M. Case, the former chief executive of America Online who engineered its acquisition of Time Warner, resigned last night as chairman of the combined company, AOL Time Warner, bowing to shareholder anger over the dismal results of the merger. He will remain as a board member.

Mr. Case's sudden resignation is the culmination of an 18-year rise on the crest of the Internet boom, which 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 media empire builder to resign from the helm of a communications conglomerate in the boom's aftermath, 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, Mr. 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 turned into an albatross dragging down the combined company's stock. The company's shares have recovered from a low this summer, closing at $14.88 Friday, but they are still far from the $56 just after the merger.

Last night, Mr. Case said he resigned so that the simmering debate over his role at the company would not distract its management. The resignation will take effect in May.

In a statement released yesterday evening, Mr. 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

Mr. Case acknowledged in an interview that he was unhappy to be leaving."If nobody had raised any concerns and there wasn't speculation and distraction over whether or not I would continue to serve as Chairman"