While hosting a forum on small business in Cleveland, Ohio on Tuesday, President Obama announced the appointment of Steve Case to the new Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. Case will join General Electric Chief Executive Jeffery Immelt and Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini on the council.
Case also leads Startup America, an initiative to increase private sector investment in new businesses with the goal of creating jobs. The council, which launched in January, also focuses on job creation.
Case is also the founder and former chief executive of AOL. In 2000, he played an instrumental role in the AOL merger with Time Warner that was valued at $350 billion.
It was, and remains, the largest business merger in American history. These days, professors at business schools around the country teach their students the merger was also one of the worst business decisions in history. It resulted in countless job losses (including Case’s as executive chairman), investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Justice, and a loss of $99 billion just one year after the deal was finalized.