2 posts and columns on Jean Case

How to Juice AOL: A Spin-Out, Of Course, But Also a Reunion at Dulles HQ?

in News on March 16, 2009 at 6:32 pm PT

First came the go-go hello email, and now new AOL Chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong will address all the troops tomorrow at 11 am EST and has chosen to do so from, of all places, AOL’s old center of power in Dulles, Virginia. Many at AOL hope that Armstrong will quickly and transparently lay out plans for a spin-out of the Time Warner online unit from the media conglomerate, where it has languished for years. And sources said Armstrong could further up the ante and help raise the layoff-weary morale by having some former AOL execs from its glory days as the top online player in person at the event.
spinout-lp

The "Billionaires' Dinner" at TED: Readjusted for the 2009 Econalyspe

in News on February 9, 2009 at 2:13 am PT

Many years ago in the midst of the Web 1.0 boom, when working as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, BoomTown redubbed an annual dinner that book agent John Brockman threw at the TED conference. It was jokingly called the “Millionaires’ Dinner,” but I renamed it the “Billionaires’ Dinner.” That was due to the frothy fortunes that had been made at the time by the Internet pioneers, from Amazon to AOL to eBay. Get it?!? Well, despite the economic meltdown, there were still a lot of billionaires in attendance at Brockman’s most recent dinner last Thursday in Long Beach. But he recounted to me that the proceedings were a lot more focused on the serious times we are in, as was the whole digerati-packed conference held last week.