Case Wants Time Warner Unpacked

Ex-AOL honcho Steve Case thinks it's time AOL and Time Warner went their separate ways, preferably by breaking the company into four divisions. Somewhere, ex-Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin must be putting his fist through a wall, after the latest opinions from Case gained blamed a lack of integration for the merged company's woes. Time Warner's separate divisions displayed the same problems that Sony has now: a lack of collaboration and focus. He cited "internal pressures" that kept AOL from rolling out Internet telephony quickly. Now, AOL has its revamped TotalTalk service and a new version of its instant messaging software available that offers several options besides text for IM. One topic Case wasn't ready to discuss in-depth was the failure of the merger of the two companies. "I have my own views, but now is not the time for that debate," Case wrote. "Unfortunately, that "one company" strategy never got off the ground." David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.