He also took on a thankless job when Levin needed someone to try to salvage the company's digital strategy after the collapse of its Pathfinder Internet hub. Meanwhile, Vice Chairman Ted Turner is said to be boiling over his loss of influence. He picked his long-time friend, WB chief Jamie Kellner, to run those properties, while Turner protege Terence McGuirk moved to a less demanding job. One could fairly say that these moves were to be expected. More to the point, the AOL people won most of the key positions last year when Case and Levin unveiled their organization chart.
Case oversees strategic planning.
AOL's J. Michael Kelly runs the numbers as CFO for AOL Time Warner. And virtually everyone acknowledged that AOL Time Warner would be better off if the AOL executives could bring some order and discipline to Time Warner's decentralized, often warring fiefdoms. It's hard to believe that one of the most brilliant strategists in corporate politics would just sit back and allow himself to be marginalized. Cynics say he will reassert himself if, or when, the crew from AOL gets itself into a jam. Of course it's impossible to prove or disprove these theories.