Wired: Steve Case, a co-founder of AOL and one of the key architects of the disastrous AOL-Time Warner deal, said Monday that he has resigned from Time Warner’s board of directors.
Case had relinquished the role of chairman two years ago, but remained on the media conglomerate’s board of directors, despite the opposition of shareholders angered by the fallout of AOL’s purchase of Time Warner at the height of the Internet bubble in 2000.
Other key executives involved in the deal had already left the company in a management purge, including former Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin and Bob Pittman, a former AOL executive.
Time Warner has agreed to pay a combined $510 million to settle shareholder lawsuits and regulatory charges that AOL fraudulently inflated its online advertising revenues and subscriber counts. The company also took massive write-downs and removed AOL from the beginning of its name.
Case said he intends to focus on his new investment company, Revolution LLC.