Online pioneer Steve Case, co-founder of the world's largest Internet company, took a defining step Monday toward his vision of revolutionizing the way people live.
Case will merge the company he co-founded, America Online (AOL), with Time Warner (TWX), the world's largest media company, in a US$163 billion stock deal he believes will define the future of communication, news, retailing, and entertainment in the new millennium.
"As we enter this Internet century, no company will be better positioned to capitalize on the convergence of media, entertainment, and communications than AOL Time Warner," he said during a news conference announcing the deal.
Born in Honolulu, Case, 41, graduated in 1980 with a degree in political science from Williams College in Massachusetts, where computer science courses were said to have been his least favorite.
After graduation, he worked in marketing for Proctor & Gamble and broke into computers when he joined Control Video Corp., a start-up company developing video games. In 1985, the company was renamed Quantum Computer Services as it shifted its focus to developing online services.
Case renamed the company America Online in 1989 and has since marched steadily toward his goal of building a new mass medium that would become, in his words, "as central to people's lives as the telephone and television and even more valuable."
By 1999, AOL had amassed more than 19 million members. The service now delivers more mail, albeit electronic mail, than the US Post Office. At peak usage times, more people are logged on to AOL than to the top cable television networks.
"Now, we'd be crazy not to be proud of this, but we're even prouder of how central the online experience is becoming to people's lives," Case said in a November speech to a communications conference in Chicago.
Case leans toward khakis and open-collared shirts at the company's Dulles, Virginia, offices, but the contents of his AOL personal home page indicate he is nearly all business. Of 17 links on his page, only three -- a volunteer site, a concert hotline, and CBS SportsLine -- are not business-related.
Today, AOL will add a new member every 3.5 seconds. But Case said the Internet was "just scratching the surface" in its benefits to consumers and the impact on the globe as the Internet moves beyond the computer to form a seamless connection with televisions, telephones, and new devices.
"This merger will launch the next Internet revolution, building on those technological advancements and making the most of them to benefit our consumers," he said.