stating his case

former aol bigwig steve case left awhile back...

now, he suggests [bugmenot login] that little AOL-TimeWarner transaction he helped engineer be undone.

When the merger was announced, analysts believed that Time Warner's music, movies and magazines along with its cable systems would speed up AOL's transition from phone dial-up to broadband, and that AOL's Internet mentality would accelerate growth at Time Warner. Neither has occurred.

however, he takes the decidedly contrarian view that AOL was held back by the transaction, particularly due to the lack of true integration across the merged company.

following the example of some integrated media companies like vivendi universal and soon viacom, case prescribes a drastic corporate re-structuring along various business lines. case cites the success of warner music since it split from the parent corporation.

while there is a bit of revisionist legacy-saving rhetoric in there, there doesn't seem to be much of the fabled and often promised synergy among the divisions as currently structured.

¶ - nitish @ 12:18 PM