THE MESSENGER COMPANY America Online, Chairman and CEO NET WORTH $650 million AGE 41 EMAILstevecase@aol.com BIO AOL Everywhere? Not yet. But thanks to Steve Case, America Online is getting
there. aol's subscribers grew to more than 20 million in 1999, and Case's company
signed up new buddies as it bought up Netscape Communications, the once mighty
browser maker; Mirabilis, producer of hit instant-messaging client ICQ; and
Justin Frankel's Nullsoft, which distributes MP3 player Winamp, the software that
set off the digital-music revolution (see "Disabling the System," Sept. 6, page
26). Hooking into start-ups keeps Case's aol from stagnating. While former MTV
executive Bob Pittman steers the ship, Ted Leonsis nurtures new products and
Barry Schuler keeps an eye on Silicon Valley, Case faces the toughest
questions--like how to combat a resurgent msn, which may be considering plans to
lure aol users away by offering cheap--or even free-- Internet access.
One person who doesn't appear to be on Case's buddy list is his former chief
technology officer, Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen, who resigned in
September. Netscape was supposed to give AOL Internet street cred; Case even
declared support for such open-source projects as the Mozilla Web browser,
Andreessen's brainchild. But AOL ended up with egg on its face when Microsoft
challenged it to open up its instant-messaging service. And though Andreessen put
his own money into personal TV-recorder start-up Replay Networks, AOL partnered
with Replay rival TiVo instead.
BEST LINE "This is a battle between good and evil."
FORWARD TILT Forget Microsoft. The real battle may be with Excite@Home, the
high-speed cable isp. AOL needs to be here before it can be Everywhere.
