Ok, now let’s get down to brass tax, folks. As I mentioned above, Steve Case is best known for having been the Co-Founder and now-retired Chairman & CEO of America Online (AOL), which accounted for roughly HALF of the internet and internet users at its height.
So who is Steve Case really?
STEPHEN MCCONNELL CASE
Steve Case is the son of Dan H. and Carol Case and grew up on a Kauai sugar plantation in Hololulu, HI. His father, DANIEL H. CASE, was a 60-year attorney for CASE LOMBARDI, where he spent his entire legal career after receiving a law degree from the University of Denver.
(Daniel H. Case passed away in June of 2016.)
Dan H. Case graduated from Williams College in Williamstown, MA, was a senior in high school at Punahou when the Pearl Harbor attacks happened, joined the U.S. Navy in 1945 and served on the Naval underwater demolition team that later became the NAVY SEALS. He would later return to Hawaii to practice law.
*Case was the PRESIDENT of the ROTARY CLUB OF HONOLULU and the HAWAII BAR ASSOCIATION, a TRUSTEE of PUNAHOU SCHOOL, a BOARD MEMBER of HAWAII PUBLISHING COMPANY and MAUI LAND & PINEAPPLE and later, after his AOL CO-FOUNDER SON, Steve Case, bought GROVE FARM, he was named CHAIRMAN of GROVE FARM.
*Dan H. Case was both an INVESTOR and a BOARD MEMBER of OAHU PUBLICATIONS, the entity that OWNS the HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER, as well.
Like his father, Steve Case would attend Williams College in Williamstown, MA, obtaining a Political Science degree in 1980. After graduation, Case became the Assistant Brand Manager at Proctor & Gamble for two years, then in 1982, moved to Wichita, KS as Manager of New Pizza Marketing for Pizza Hut.
The following year, Case was introduced to BILL VON MEISTER, CEO of CONTROL VIDEO CORPORATION, who hired Case as a Marketing Consultant later that year.
Control Video Corporation, which had been founded that same year (1983), was offering Atari 2600 users a “flat monthly fee” model (instead of a “pay-per-minute” model), with a one-time “modem set-up” fee, to use its “Gameline” online services. In 1985, Control Video Corporation underwent a corporate restructuring and became QUANTUM COMPUTER SERVICES, with JIM KIMSEY as CEO and MARC SERIFF as CTO.
*Soon after, QCS added Quantum Link, AppleLink and PC Link to its offerings, and changed its name to AOL (1989).
Case had been introduced to Von Meister by his older brother, DAN CASE III, who was an Investment Banker and Chairman of JP MORGAN HAMBRECHT & QUIST.
(This will be extremely important to the plot, sports fans.)
Dan Case III and his firm, JP Morgan H&Q, were widely renowned for having been early investors and major financiers and/or underwriters for several of the world’s most successful internet and tech companies of the 1990s. H&Q CO-FOUNDER WILLIAM R. HAMBRECHT had originally recruited Dan Case, a Rhodes Scholar, to join H&Q in 1979 as an intern. Then after Case completed his studies at Oxford University and returned to America, he joined H&Q full-time. Case rose through the ranks rather quickly at H&Q, being named its CO-CEO in 1992 at just 34 years old. Shortly after, Case became CEO in 1994 and eventually, was named CHAIRMAN & CEO of H&Q.
Dan Case III and H&Q built a legendary rolodex, which included tech/biotech heavy-hitters like GENENTECH, APPLE, NETSCAPE, ADOBE, AMAZON and the internet company his younger brother would one day lead, QUANTUM COMPUTER SERVICES.
*In fact, Dan Case and JP Morgan H&Q were the lead UNDERWRITERS for the IPOs of APPLE and AMAZON.
Needless to say, Dan Case was already doing well for himself, when CHASE MANHATTAN BANK came along in September 1999 and agreed to BUY H&Q for $1.35 BILLION, netting him a $94,500,000 payday.
*After the acquisition of H&Q by Chase, the new entity became known as Chase Securities West, with Dan Case serving as its CEO. Later, when JP MORGAN and CHASE merged, CSW became a DIVISION of JP MORGAN CHASE — JP Morgan H&Q.
(Dan Case III became Chairman & CEO of JP Morgan H&Q.)