Case’s Job Status Not Discussed

Steve Case began AOL Time Warner’s board meeting Thursday as chairman, and he still was chairman when the all-day meeting ended.

Despite pressure from some major shareholders to oust Case and some anti-Case sentiment on the board itself, the 44-year-old chairman’s job status was not on the agenda and was not even discussed, company spokesman Edward Adler said Thursday evening.

“Steve Case is chairman and is going to remain so. The board conducted regular business today,” Adler said. The company usually doesn’t say even that much about a regularly-scheduled board meeting held at its headquarters in Manhattan, but “all the rumors and speculation forced us to act,” he added.

Case declined to be interviewed, as did several of the other 13 board members.

AOL Time Warner shares sank 56 cents, or 4%, to $12.27 on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.

The stock has plummeted 74% since the January 2001 merger of America Online Inc., the company Case founded, and Time Warner Inc. Some shareholders blame Case for overselling the merger and the purported benefits that the popular Internet service would bring to the media and entertainment giant.

Two others held most responsible for the merger, former AOL Time Warner Chief Executive Gerald M. Levin and former co-Chief Operating Officer Robert W. Pittman, have been squeezed out of the company.

Case’s status “is really not the key issue in front of the board,” said Ajay Mehra, vice president of Columbia Management, a Portland, Ore., investment firm that considers AOL Time Warner shares undervalued and recently began buying. Directors and managers ought to be focusing on “stopping the bleeding” at the online unit, where advertising revenue has plunged, subscribed growth has slowed sharply and there is confusion and poor morale among the staff, Mehra said.