Steve Case Would've Had AOL Out of TW Years Ago

Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes is floating the idea that struggling AOL could either combine with another company -- hey, how about Yahoo!! -- or be spun out of Time Warner. New idea? Hardly. In 2005, Steve Case, who built AOL and created the AOL-Time Warner merger, argued that AOL should be broken out of Time Warner.

In December, at the Washington, DC, headquarters of Case's current company, Revolution, I talked with him again about AOL's situation and his feelings about it. Here is the exchange:

Q: Do you still feel emotionally tied to AOL?
A: Yes and no. I think I spent so much time building it and I was so passionate about AOL, and interactive service generally... it's always gong to be part of me and so in that sense, there's always that emotional connection. At the same time I've been out of it for 5 plus years, and in fact left the board - 4 years ago I stepped down as chairman and 5 or 6 years ago I stepped down as CEO. So I've been pretty uninvolved for the last 5 years or so. And I've been focused on Revolution. Focused what we're doing at Case Foundation. So I really don't spend a lot of time looking in the rear view mirror, I'm more focused on the future so if you ask me how's AOL doing, I really don't know. But of course, it's always going to be a part of me, and obviously I'm proud of what we've built -- but for me it was time to move on and I'm taking some of those skill sets, some of the passion, some of the money I made there and trying to apply it to other industries that I think are ripe for change.

Q: Would you ever want to grab it back, if Time Warner made it available?

A: Probably not. That was then, this is now.

Q: Do you think it can come back?

A: Yeah, I think it can.. I think... obviously it's been difficult to watch, given that seven years ago it was the most important internet company on the planet, and now it's not nearly as relevant. But I think I wrote, 2 years ago, in the Washington Post editorial what I think should happen, which from a Time Warner perspective, was to split into 4 companies and for AOL to go back to its roots and focus on some things that it's particularly strong on, like community and social networking and things like that. I don't think there's been anything in the last 2 years that changes my view on that.

Credit: Jim Young/Landov/Reuters.

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