VITAMEDIAS
Glitter Lost Luster After The High-Tech Gold Rush: AOL Time Warner Inc. Chairman Steve Case is the latest in a line of new-economy moguls to fall victim to some old-fashioned economic pitfalls. Or it may be that he and his fellow vanquished media lords just dreamed up their good ideas too early. [...]
Last summer, former Vivendi Universal SA chief executive Jean-Marie Messier, who dreamed of turning a creaky French utility into a 21st-century media and communications behemoth via high-tech wizardry, was ousted by his board of directors after a year-long spending spree that left the company on the verge of bankruptcy and has triggered investigations by authorities in France and the United States. In Germany, whiz-kid Thomas Middelhoff was bounced by his board of directors at Bertelsmann AG media company, the world's fourth-largest.
Steve Case to Step Down as Chairman of AOL Time Warner in May; Case to Continue as Board Member