AOL's Steve Case Resigns

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I tried to get my husband to sell AOL at about 56....he wouldn't so I finally sold it this past year around 15....I HATED AOL! the company and knew the stock would go nowhere.

You and me both....I bought in at around 25 or so sensing a bottom.....wrong.

It's a dog that'll be in my kennel for a LONG time.

Of course she also covets WCOM, VIGN, 3COM, EGGS, RYO, USTL, CPQ and DELL.

Yesterday's "story" stocks. This is whay so many investors lose money in the market - always chasing what went up last. Those stocks will be dead money for years and years to come, now.

Tell her to covet DROOY, GG, HFI, and PAAS instead...

Hey Jim, How ya doin' hon?

I don't know if you can make CPAC this year. If not give me a shout out I will get some goodies for you.

Steve Case Will Step Down
As AOL Time Warner Chair

A WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE NEWS ROUNDUP

NEW YORK -- Steve Case will step down as chairman of AOL Time Warner Inc. at the firm's annual shareholders' meeting in May, according to a company press release.

Mr. Case informed CEO Richard Parsons and the company's board of his decision to step down over the weekend.

AOL'S SHAKE-UP

• Read the full text of AOL Time Warner's press release on Case's decision

• Bios of key players

• Discuss: Can AOL come back?

• WSJ.com/AOL: Get full coverage

"As you might expect, this decision was personally very difficult for me, as I would love to serve as Chairman of this great company for many years to come, and as an architect of the merger I have felt it was important that I stay the course as Chairman and help get things on track. However, after careful consideration, I believe stepping down is in the best interest of the company," Mr. Case said in a statement.

Late last year, as criticism of the America Online division mounted within the company, Mr. Case was said to have weighed spinning off the unit. America Online continues to be the lightning rod for the company's woes, amid the fallout from the burst Internet bubble. AOL Time Warner company is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department for the way it accounted for certain advertising transactions engineered by America Online. In October, the company announced a bigger-than-expected, $190 million restatement of financial results for the past two years because of faulty accounting.

In ceding his post Sunday, Mr. Case noted that "some shareholders continue to focus their disappointment with the company's post-merger performance on me personally."

Mr. Case will remain at AOL Time Warner as a director and a co-chair of the strategy committee.

He never responded to our emails anyway. We won't miss him.

It was a First Amendment issue for a lot of people. That and the arrogant service did them in. Along about the time they merged, I realized that virtually every empty-headed liberal I knew was an AOL subscriber. Virtually none of my more thoughtful centrist and conservative friends are. Consumers are far more savvy (of course) and aware of the political aspects to all this than these liberal, money-grubbing bozos ever realized. People did not want to subscribe to an Clinton-friendly, Ted Turner internet company whose ulitmate aim - we feared - was to control content. We already KNOW they would LOVE to shut down talk radio if they could.

Steve, you've got nailed.

No. Ted Turner doesn't even run his own former holdings within the Time Warner empire anymore.

Almost On Line gave Time Warner Cable employees shares at $37 a share right after the merger... we use them as coffetable coasters now.

Yeah, but you should see the severance package: they gave him ten million AOL "coaster CDs" to ease the pain.

--Boris

virtually every empty-headed liberal I knew was an AOL subscriber

Yep, and every person who is stupid about computers has it, or has recently tried it, too. I just spent a few hours this afternoon taking spyware and bloatware off a computer I sold to a customer a few weeks ago. Seems they got impatient with the free NoCharge.com dialup I put on there for them, and succumbed to one of those ever-present coasters flying around out there.

Glad to see Case put in his place, he's the arrogant head of a company that treats the American public more shabbily than any other I have ever known. And that includes US car companies, too!

AOL is really a trip. They've started another disk push, local grocery store is putting them in every bag lol Try and quit, they give you free month(s). I told them my modem got fried by lightening and I wasn't buying a new one (true), so they sent me a free one (yes, true!).

I pay $5 a month and have it as a back-up to my cable. The other day I called to cancel, and the rep told me how to get free access my filling out surveys and junk lol (the AOL email acct can get spammed I don't use it lol). You can 'earn' up to about $10 in free time.

You can't quit!! AOL is like herpes: it never goes away. I tried to cancel in September, and got the spiel about a free month, then another month after that, all the while being charged for the "service." When I called the so called customer service, they have "no record of the calls I made where I was offered complimentary (that means free in my dictionary) service for the months of October and November, and that the charges would apply.

I have since removed every vestige of AOL from my computer, laptop, and work computers, and am considering expuging Netscape because they own it.

If you are an AOL customer and you wish to cancel, do not accept any offers of "free" months, and inform that (for training purposes LOL), you are recording the phone transaction. I suggest you really do it if able, because you might as well be speaking to a wall if you don't. Hundreds of similar complaints at aolsucks.com and aolwatch.com.

Be warned: they lie and then lie about the lying. NEVER allow automatic credit card debiting. No wonder they are going down the toilet.

Hey, everyone, "The Big Heist" is showing on CNBC. The show discusses AOL's takeover of TW. Coinkydink that this is on today?

Good Advice....

I did once have 2 AOL accounts. 2 1/2 years ago I cancelled one of them (the computer wasn't even working anymore) and then didn't pay attention right away to whether they had stopped auto billing my credit card.

Needless to say they hadn't...and when I caught it they had billed me 3 months more for complete NON USE!

I called their customer service and complained and they did admit I had cancelled etc, then they credited my account for 6 months service total (because the rep could see we really hadn't used the acct for awhile before that due to computer problems etc)

I did get the credit the next billing....but they may have been "nice" to me since I still had another current account.

When I want to QUIT them 'cold turkey' I will remember NOT to accept any "FREE" months etc...

AOL is basically selling dial-up acesss (which nobody wants) and a simple way to get on the internet (which nobody needs, since your OS gives you that).

These services back in the mid 90's made some sense as there was no broadband, and getting email and web working for a lot of people was way too hard.

This product basically makes zero sense now in 2003. AOL never reinvented themselves and now they have become marginalized. Too bad, so sad.

LOL!

hey steve, you gun grabbin piece of refuse... d'ja get a clue?

steve. door. ass. buh bye.

I'd have to say then that you needed some direction on how to deal with any company/service.
Everything they do regarding billing, charges, free months etc is documented and posted to your billing page and you are notified via email of support conversations and the results of them.
You can also choose to chat online instead of by phone, and you'll then have a log of the entire conversation.
You can also take names, and ask to speak to supervisors.
I have quit AOL many times, and gone back with free hours, etc. I have never paid for any hour I didn't use.
As for credit card deductions, one call to the credit card company ends that.
Now, I am certainly not saying that AOL is a good company, just that being an informed consumer of any service should be the norm.

You make it easy to honor the commandment "Thou shall not covet thy neighbors possessions"! :-)

ROFL - that was great!