Amid slumping revenue and stockholder backlash, AOL Time Warner chairman Steve Case announced over the weekend that he will step down in May 2003. Case will remain on the company board and co-chair its Strategy Committee. One of the last America Online executives still in power at the conglomerate, Case was also one of the last remaining engineers of the $106 billion America Online-Time Warner merger in 2001. Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin resigned last May.
Case’s resignation will complete the retaking of the executive ranks by the Time Warner side that began with the departure of AOL co-founder and AOL Time Warner COO Bob Pittman last summer. Amid reports of combative relationships with Time Warner management, Pittman was replaced by Jeff Bewkes, HBO cable TV chairman and overseer of entertainment and networks business, and Time Inc. Chairman Don Logan, who heads up the Media and Communications group.
The online company has been a drain for the conglomerate, forcing AOL Time Warner to take a $54 billion charge last year to account for a decline in AOL’s value (a 50 percent drop in stock price over the past year). Another write-down is expected later this month in the $10 billion range. Last week, AOL Time Warner announced more cost-cutting measures, including lay-offs and reduced marketing spending for 2003.
Meanwhile, America Online named Leonard Short as VP-brand marketing. Formerly executive VP of advertising and promotion at Charles Schwab & Co., Short will oversee promotions, advertising and media, and brand management.
