Steve Case
1958–

Director, Time Warner

Nationality: American.

Born: August 21, 1958, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Education: Williams College, BA, 1980.

Family: Son of Dan (attorney) and Carol (teacher; maiden name unknown) Case; married Joanne Baker (divorced); children: three; married Jean Villanueva.

Career: Procter & Gamble, c. 1980–1982, marketing; Pizza Hut, c. 1982–1983, new product manager; Control Video, which became Quantum Computer Services in 1985, which became America Online in 1991, 1984–1992, various positions including vice president of marketing; 1991–2001, chief executive officer; AOL Time Warner, 2001–2003, chairman; Time Warner, 2003–, director.

Address: Time Warner, 75 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, New York 10019; http://www.timewarner.com.

■ Stephen M. (Steve) Case went from marketing hair care products and pizza to establishing the highly successful online Internet service called America Online (AOL). Unlike other computer and Internet gurus who forged giant companies and made fortunes from the rapidly advancing computer industry, Case did not have a background in technology. Rather, he relied on his marketing expertise to outmaneuver and outperform competing Internet service providers such as Prodigy, Compuserve, and Microsoft. In 2001 Case completed AOL's buyout of the media giant Time Warner and became chairman of the newly named AOL Time Warner. Two years later Case went from being one of the most important media moguls in the world to resigning as chairman of AOL Time Warner as the company's stocks floundered. Despite this turn of events, industry analysts have noted that Case was a true Internet pioneer whose determination and vision helped establish online services as an integral part of the new era of Internet communications and commerce.

Steve Case.

AP/Wide World Photos

SHOWS YOUNG ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT

Steve Case was born and grew up in Hawaii. He showed an early entrepreneurial spirit, when he and his brother, Dan, set up a lime juice stand in their neighborhood. In their teens the brothers formed Case Enterprises, a mail-order business that sold watches, seeds, and Christmas cards. For an article in Fortune , Case's mother, Carol, told Andy Serwer, "But they were also competitive. They both had typewriters, and you could hear them typing away their ad circulars" (November 22, 1999). Steve also started a number of businesses on his own, including operating an airport shuttle and selling fruit baskets, which helped him make money while he was attending Williams College in Massachusetts. Case even wrote music reviews so he could get free tickets to shows and was a singer in two new-wave rock bands.

After graduating in 1980 Case was dismayed when all his applications to MBA programs were rejected. He applied for jobs at the prestigious New York advertising firm of J. Walter Thompson and at Time's cable-TV network, HBO. Both rejected him. Nevertheless, Case was already thinking big. As reported by Richard Linnett and Kathleen Sampey in Adweek Eastern Edition , Case had written in his applications that he envisioned a future when two-way cable systems would make the standard television set "an information line, newspaper, school, computer, referendum machine and catalog" (January 17, 2000).

Case ended up working for Procter & Gamble in marketing. After two years trying to sell items such as Abound hair conditioner, he left and joined Pizza Hut, where he became manager of new pizza development. As he tested new product combinations and offered them to the public, he found that people continued to like the plain old cheese and sauce pizza best. Case noted that he learned to keep it simple, and the lesson would later serve him well.

FROM PIZZA TO HIGH TECH

Developing new toppings for pizza was not exactly Case's idea of being an entrepreneur and he left in 1983 to join Control Video, a video-game specialist company backed by the company where his older brother, Dan, worked. Control Video was pioneering the still-fledgling computer online world and setting up a service for users of Atari computer games. Although Case admitted that he had hated the one computer science course he ever took in college, he had found that communicating via computer was exciting. While working for Pizza Hut he had bought a Kaypro computer, and it took him two weeks to figure out how to hook it into an online service. He told Joel Shore in Computer Reseller News , "But when I finally logged in and found myself linked to people all over the country from this sorry little apartment in Wichita, it was just exhilarating" (November 15, 1999). Now he was working for a company that was more aligned with his vision of two-way cable information systems.

Control Video soon encountered financial problems and was re-formed as Quantum Computer Services in 1985. Case was made marketing vice president and set out to establish Quantum's new Q-Link online service for Commodore computer users. The service was successful and Quantum soon expanded to form online deals with Apple Computer and Tandy. When Apple departed company with Quantum, Case's marketing experience told him it was time to give the company a whole new image as it launched a new nationwide online service. Case held a contest to choose a new name for the service and ended up picking his own suggestion of "Online America," which was changed to America Online. In 1991 the company officially changed its name to America Online, and Case took over as the company's chief executive officer the following year.

AOL GOES PUBLIC

On March 9, 1992, Case and AOL went public on the NASDAQ and raised $66 million through an offer of two million shares for $11.50 each. Although many believed that on-line services were going to be a passing phase and of little use when the Internet and World Wide Web were fully developed, Case saw the future differently. From the beginning, as noted in Fortune , he described AOL's mission as building "a global medium as central to people's lives as the telephone or television … and even more valuable" (February 7, 2000). Case was not the only one high on the potential of online services. Paul Allen, who was partnered with Bill Gates in Microsoft in 1992, wanted to buy AOL. Case turned him down.

Although Case was confident, AOL only had 181,600 users in 1992. Furthermore, AOL was battling other online services, most of which had more financial backing, for the relatively new and growing market. In addition, within a year major mergers of companies like Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting led many market analysts to predict that Case's smaller online service would be swamped by these behemoths' better offers.

Fortunately for AOL, Case's background in marketing enabled him to make AOL competitive and ultimately to help it come out on top. First and foremost, he recognized that the online service had to be user-friendly, truly useful, fun, and affordable. His goal was to create a medium that anyone, not just computer aficionados, could take full advantage of. Case also recognized that AOL would have to leverage technology and partner with a variety of companies to create that experience. AOL started to send free computer disks in the mail to Americans who owned computers so they could easily load AOL onto their computers and log on to the fledgling World Wide Web. From 1994 to 1996 AOL added five million new customers, more than the New York Times and Washington Post had added during the previous 50 years. As a result, AOL became the largest online service provider.

THE WEB THREATENS

Despite these successes, Case and AOL were facing several serious problems in 1996. Service blackouts and busy signals on the telephone landlines, because of the high volume that AOL's unlimited usage pricing plan had created, angered many customers. There was also a mounting threat from Microsoft as it created a rival service to AOL, which would eventually become the Microsoft Network. Case's marketing strategy proved too much, however, for even the giant Micro-soft to overcome, and AOL would eventually form a partnership with the company. But many market analysts saw the real competition to AOL and all other online service providers as being the Internet and the World Wide Web itself, which computer users could access in a number of ways without a sophisticated Internet service provider such as AOL.

While many saw the Web as a competitor to AOL, Case saw the Web as a niche filled with thousands of disparate home pages with little marketing strategy. The Internet, in Case's view, was just a piece of what consumers would ultimately want. Case was intent on continuing to package AOL in a way that Main Street would find valuable. He proclaimed that the Web was really an opportunity for AOL to expand, emphasizing that the proprietary content service AOL provided was a way to make the broken-up world of Web sites and organizations into a more consumer-friendly entity.

Case realized that the Internet without an organized online service provider would require consumers to buy various software packages, plug-ins, and add-ons in order to take part fully in the experience. Furthermore, they would have to surf the Internet and subscribe to services they wanted on an individual basis. Case told Gene Koprowski in an article for Forbes that the approach was fine for those who were technologically astute but was too complicated for the average consumer. He added, "TV would never have gotten a 90 percent market penetration if it had been that hard. If you want to reach a mainstream audience, you have to make it more plug and play. One-stop shopping" (October 7, 1996).

Although in 1997 AOL suffered a $499 million loss that led many to believe the market analysts were right in predicting its fall, Case soon changed their minds. The following year, 1998, AOL garnered $91.8 million in net income on revenues of $2.6 billion. Several factors helped Case to turn things around. First of all, he and the president of AOL, Robert Pitt-man, continued to rely on old-fashioned marketing campaigns. They increased AOL's direct-mail campaign and flooded American homes with AOL diskettes and CDs, making it easy for consumers to sign up for the service. Case and Pittman also began luring online merchants to advertise and sell their wares to AOL's millions of subscribers. Case saw these e-commerce revenues as perhaps eventually being even more lucrative than subscription fees. By 1999 AOL had 17 million members and Case had turned the company into the first true blue chip Internet stock.

LOOKS TO THE INTERNET CENTURY

By 2000 Case and AOL had accomplished several things that signaled AOL would be one of the leaders of what Case had dubbed the coming "Internet century." Among them was a $4.2 billion deal to buy Netscape Internet portal, which AOL acquired in March 1999 along with Netscape Communications Corporation. The portal was among the most popular destinations on the Web.

Although AOL was nearing 25 million subscribers, Case was facing a threat. High-speed cable Internet access was under development and owned by large corporations, such as AT&T and Time Warner. With the promise of greatly increasing the speed of downloading Internet sites, Case knew the threat to AOL was significant. He had spent much of 1999 lobbying Congress, the Federal Communications Commission, and local governments to force cable companies to open their networks so that AOL and other unaffiliated Internet service providers could bring high-speed access to their customers. But Case also had other plans. He was positioning AOL for the impending broadband explosion by cutting deals with satellite delivery companies and telecommunications companies that offered digital subscriber line services.

In January 2000 Case's next move was clear. He announced that AOL was buying the media conglomerate Time Warner in a merger that would create the new company, AOL Time Warner. The company would combine AOL's online services with Time Warner's vast media and cable assets. Many industry analysts saw it as a coup for Case, who could now pursue his dream to package, distribute, and sell both information and entertainment in radically new ways. Case was made chairman of the new company in January 2001 and was charged with focusing primarily on the technological developments and policy initiatives concerned with the global expansion of the new interactive media. Many industry analysts saw the move as firmly establishing the Internet as a medium for audio and video as well as for traditional text and graphics. In an article on CNET News.com , the industry analyst Phil Leigh noted, "It is probably the most significant development in the Internet business world to date" (January 10, 2000).

The purchase was basically an all-stock deal involving about $160 billion. On the day of the deal's announcement, Time Warner's stock soared up $25.31, or 39 percent, to $90.06. But AOL's stock fell 2 percent by the end of the day to $71.88. According to some analysts, AOL's stockholders had good reason to be cautious. Although Case and AOL seemed on the verge of heading a new world that combined online services with media, they still faced many challenges and competitors. Many analysts also thought that Case and AOL had given up an essential and important aspect of the company. Throughout the years Case had been extremely focused on his goals for AOL. He had beaten out Gates and Microsoft in the Internet service provider war because he and the people under him lived, breathed, and dreamed about on-line services, while Microsoft and other competitors had to pay attention to various non-Internet aspects of their businesses. Analysts noted that with the merger Case and AOL were also going to have to deal with disparate businesses, such as TV networks, cable systems, magazines, books, and movies. At the same time Microsoft was increasing its focus on the Internet. As for Case, he told Jennifer Gilbert in an article for Advertising Age that he saw the merger as a way to build bridges among various communications formats. He noted, "The future is more about the PC and the TV and the telephone all connected in a seamless way" (April 17, 2000).

MANAGEMENT STYLE: LOW KEY BUT FOCUSED

Many analysts noted that Case's personal style probably had a lot to do with his ultimate success in taking AOL to the top of the Internet service provider heap. Case had been described as an unassuming and down-to-earth leader who was not boisterous in his managerial style. He understood clearly the need for good PR and the power of the inside strategy of talking one-on-one with people to get what he wanted. For example, he continually met with politicians of all persuasions in Washington, D.C., as he tried to iron out concerns about the Internet, including the availability of pornography. At the same time, he won concessions that virtually eliminated AOL's liability for crimes committed by users of its network and derailed antipornography pressure. He also helped defeat privacy legislation that would have limited online companies' ability to gather marketing information about the Internet habits of teenagers.

Industry analysts noted that AOL became successful because of Case's diligence and vision, values that he ingrained in AOL's corporate culture. For Case, there was no alternative to the Internet and AOL's future domination of it. His stubbornness about building the company was apparent, said analysts, when Case and AOL could have sold out for millions of dollars early on but rejected the deal. They also noted that Case was relentless in reengineering his company around a marketing sensibility that he knew well.

Although coworkers and others observed that Case had a healthy ego, they also said that it never stopped him from hiring people who were more flamboyant and creative. They also said that he did not take a threatening approach to management and worked well with the technological talent he needed to make AOL grow. Writing in MC Technology Marketing Intelligence , Michael Schrage commented, "Steve Case was able to attract and retain a conglomerate of truly talented and—in the entrepreneurial sense—effective team of executives" (March 2000).

AFTER THE FALL

Although Case and many industry analysts expected the new AOL Time Warner company to prosper, the market value of the new company had fallen $50 billion by the time of the annual meeting in May 2002. During the meeting, Case took most of the heat for the company's poor performance. Many claimed that Case went from being a visionary to a mere executive. Case himself apologized for setting the company's profit targets too high and sticking with them too long. Further compromising Case's position was a growing AOL accounting scandal that had Securities and Exchange Commission investigators probing into whether AOL had made suspect deals to overinflate its revenue numbers while it had been trying to buy Time Warner with a stock deal.

AOL Online was also presenting many problems for Time Warner because revenues from advertising and subscriptions had decreased $1 billion in one year. Its ad sales were also dying, and AOL could not establish its broadband sales. The debate was heated over whether Case's vision for the company was working. In February 2003 Case stepped down as chairman of AOL Time Warner but remained a director on the board of the newly named Time Warner. Few believed, however, that Case would have much to say in the running of the company.

Although many industry analysts believed that Case's vision was correct, they noted that a number of factors contributed to his departure. First of all, the timing for Case's takeover of Time Warner probably could not have been worse. On the personal front, as the merger took place, Case spent long periods away from the company to spend time with his older brother, Dan, who was dying of cancer.(Dan Case had also become extremely successful as the CEO of Hambrecht and Quist and then chairman of the board of JP Morgan H&Q.) On the national front, the economic recession and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, crippled the new technologies sector. As one of the most outspoken proponents of interactive services, Case's high profile made him an easy target. In addition, once the inflated Internet currency that Case had used to buy AOL finally burst, AOL Time Warner was in dire straits financially. Many insiders also noted that Case's management style and intellect did not transfer well to an established, conservative company like Time Warner. Case had made his name and established his style with a one-time startup company that did not initially answer to stockholders and remained narrowly focused on its goals. As a result, the corporate cultures of AOL and Time Warner never really meshed.

By the time Case stepped down, nearly $200 billion worth of shareholder value in AOL Time Warner had been lost. As described by Michael Maccoby in Forbes , Case was among a number of "chief executives who sold themselves and their companies on innovation and vision, only to be kicked out and quickly replaced by bosses whose immediate goals are cost-cutting, debt reduction and steady and predictable growth" (March 3, 2003). While some analysts thought it would be unwise to cut Case totally loose from the company and that his vision could still serve Time Warner well, others commented that it would be best for AOL to separate completely from the company and bring Case back on board.

Despite his fall, Case remained optimistic about the future. Case commented that the difficult environment in terms of the economy, advertising, and the Internet sector certainly contributed to the company's difficulties. However, he noted that consumer and technology trends were giving consumers more choice, control, and convenience and that these factors were going to ultimately transform media, entertainment, and communications. In an interview with CNN's Paula Zahn, he said, "And our company, AOL Time Warner, is best positioned to ride that wave" (January 14, 2003). After leaving the company, Case spent most of his time concerned with the philanthropic efforts of the Case Foundation.

Steve Case
1958–

SHOWS YOUNG ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT

FROM PIZZA TO HIGH TECH

AOL GOES PUBLIC

THE WEB THREATENS

LOOKS TO THE INTERNET CENTURY

MANAGEMENT STYLE: LOW KEY BUT FOCUSED

AFTER THE FALL

sources for further information

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Steve Case 1958–

SHOWS YOUNG ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT

FROM PIZZA TO HIGH TECH

AOL GOES PUBLIC

THE WEB THREATENS

LOOKS TO THE INTERNET CENTURY

MANAGEMENT STYLE: LOW KEY BUT FOCUSED

AFTER THE FALL

sources for further information

User Contributions:

Comment about this article, ask questions, or add new information about this topic:

Steve Case
1958–