Steve Case, a co-founder of AOL and an architect of the
AOL-Time Warner deal, announced Monday his resignation from the Time Warner
board of directors.
Case said in a statement he was leaving to devote more time to his new
company, Revolution.
“Leaving Time Warner’s Board will give me a greater opportunity to grow
Revolution, including avoiding any potential conflicts of interest as
Revolution moves into new areas,” Case said in the release.
“I will remain actively engaged as strategies for AOL’s future are considered, and as steps are taken to maximize Time Warner shareholder value.”
In 2003 Case resigned as COO of AOL Time Warner after coming under fire from shareholders for mounting losses, but he stayed on as a member
of the company’s board of directors.
“We have great respect for his long record of achievement — as a co-founder
of AOL to a valuable member of our board,” Richard Parsons, Time Warner’s chairman and CEO and the man who replaced Case, said in a statement. “As Steve is one of our major individual shareholders, we’ll look forward to his wise counsel as the company continues to move forward. He will be missed,” the statement read.
In recent months AOL has become the subject of numerous merger rumors involving several industry heavyweights, including
Microsoft , Google
and Yahoo
.
Last week AOL laid off 700 employees, primarily affecting the company’s membership services
division and represented approximately 4 percent of AOL’s total workforce of
20,000.