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Steve Case may be out of work, but he's very rich

Long before announcing on Sunday that he would step down as chairman of AOL Time Warner, Case had liquidated some of his stockholdings.

Case sold shares for roughly US$160 million after putting together the combination of his company, AOL, with Time Warner in early 2000. Even before then, from 1992 through 1999, Case sold AOL shares worth about US$531 million.

In addition, he owns 11.4 million shares of AOL Time Warner and has 18.3 million stock options, some of which are underwater at the current share price. At Monday's close of US$15.03 a share, the shares he owns outright were worth about US$171 million. Case was not entirely prescient, though. He added to his holdings last year, buying about a million shares that have since fallen in value.

Case's reputation has waned as the AOL Time Warner merger foundered along with reports of aggressive accounting at AOL before the merger. Still, it seems that Case came out ahead of his counterpart at Time Warner, Gerald M. Levin. Since resigning as chief executive last year, Levin has sold one home and has put two more on the market, perhaps because he is preparing for a divorce from his wife, Barbara.
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