Time Warner today announced that Steve Case has resigned from the firm’s board of directors. Case had stepped down as chairman of the board back in 2003.

Case was one of the sparkling personalities during the dotcom boom and shook the media industry when he announced the $106-billion merger with Time Warner in 2000. However, "AOL Time Warner" never achieved the goals Case had set for the combined company and lived through a time of serious financial troubles and record losses. Today, Time Warner is returning to its roots and is reportedly looking for partners to support AOL, including Google and Microsoft.

"On behalf of Time Warner’s Board of Directors and senior management team, I thank Steve Case for his years of distinguished service to our company. We have great respect for his long record of achievement - as a co-founder of AOL to a valuable member of our board. As Steve is one of our major individual shareholders, we’ll look forward to his wise counsel as the company continues to move forward. He will be missed," said Dick Parsons, Time Warner’s chairman and chief executive officer.

The 47-year old Case, born in Honolulu, Hawaii, founded America Online in 1991 and grew the service to more than one million subscribers within 3 years. He led the company to more than 35 million subscribers during the high-flying times of Internet companies, acquired rival Internet service providers such as CompuServe and web browser pioneer Netscape.

Case said that he intends to focus on "Revolution", a company that is involved in the healthcare and resort business.