Published September 19, 2002
NEW YORK - Stephen Case began AOL Time Warner's board meeting yesterday as chairman, and he was chairman when the all-day meeting ended.
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In between, 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 yesterday evening.
"As we've repeatedly said, Steve Case is chairman and is going to remain so. The board conducted regular business today," Adler said.
The company normally wouldn't say even that much about a regularly scheduled board meeting held at headquarters in midtown Manhattan, but "all the rumors and speculation forced us to act," Adler added.
Case declined to be interviewed, as did several of the other 13 board members.
AOL Time Warner shares sank 56 cents, or 4 percent, to $12.27 in trading yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange.
The stock has plummeted 74 percent 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 Levin and Co-Chief Operating Officer Robert Pittman, already have been squeezed out of the company.
Yet 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.
