Network World, 01/04/99

STEVE CASE CEO, AMERICA ONLINE

Steve Case, the king of consumer networking, on the roster of enterprise networking's most powerful people?

Who'd-a-thunk it?

But consider that Case, who's brought 14 million Americans online and stressed landfills across the nation with discarded AOL sign-up diskettes, has overnight changed the way we think about the traditional power structure in business networking.

With the $4.2 billion deal to acquire Netscape, as well as a side arrangement with Sun to sell Netscape's enterprise software, Case has positioned his company as one of the most powerful e-commerce

players in the new world of networking. Suddenly, Bill Gates has a well-heeled rival who wants to bring American businesses online. And one who wants to see that Java stuff reach its promised potential.

If the Netscape deal goes through, Case will have the potential to steer what many businesses - and his traditional consumer audiences - do and buy online. The numbers are staggering. In addition to the throngs of AOL customers

and two million users of Compuserve, which is owned by AOL, Case will have access to the nine million or so users of Netscape 's Netcenter site and millions more users of the AOL-owned ICQ instant messaging and chat software.

CASE'S CHALLENGE: While the act of finessing the Netscape-Sun deal shows the extent of his influence today, Case has a long haul ahead in realizing his grandiose e-commerce dreams. Plenty can go wrong along the way, but it will be fun to watch, no matter what happens.

Prior: Berners-Lee

Next: Chambers