THERE MUST BE A PONY IN HERE SOMEWHERE: The AOL Time Warner Debacle and the Quest for the Digital Future

In an always lively, sometimes glib style, Swisher, writing with Dickey, recounts the forces that led to the biggest media deal in history and then traces the downward spiral of the combined AOL Time Warner. In the late 1990s, executives of AOL, led by Steve Case, were looking to capitalize on AOL's sky-high stock price by completing a transforming acquisition with a major media company. At the same time, Time Warner, burned by several failed online ventures, was looking for a way to make sure it didn't become an anachronism in the new age of the Internet. So when Case met Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin, the combination seemed like a sure winner. A preliminary merger agreement was announced in January 2000 with great fanfare, but within a year, and before the deal was even officially completed, there were signs of the problems that would lead to the ouster of nearly every one associated with the merger. The Internet bubble, which had driven up AOL's stock price to unsustainable heights, burst, dragging down its share price. And the skidding price exacerbated what was already a difficult task of meshing AOL's corporate culture with that of Time Warner. Swisher (AOL.com), a columnist with the Wall Street Journal, doesn't take sides in deciding who is to blame for the merger's failure, but provides the perspective from both AOL and Time Warner on why the merger failed to click. Swisher uses her access to most top AOL executives and Levin to deliver a story that races along in Internet time about one of the seminal events in media history. (Oct.)