Michael Wolff speculates that Walter Isaacson's departure from CNN is perhaps indicative of AOL/TW's accelerating nosedive into irrelevancy. (Minor sideline: Wolff also mentions that his book, Burn Rate, is being turned into a musical. Dear god.)
The altar of Walter [NY Magazine]

The New Yorker's James Suroweicki says that the failure of the AOL/TW merger has more to do with TW's failure to utilize AOL's distribution network than the culture clashes between the two companies. Time Warner never had a homogeneous culture in the first place. He doesn't, however, deny that such conflicts existed. AOL's astronomical valuation left newly merged AOL execs much wealthier that their TW counterparts and one TW employee recalls an AOLer ending a meeting by saying "Well, I'm worth $100 million, so the truth is, I just don't really care."
The culture excuse

Vanity Fair's Nina Munk is following the AOL/TW saga in preparation for a book. If it's optioned for film, Munk's casting choices are as follows: "Peter Gallagher as Bob Pittman; Burt Reynolds as Ted Turner; Dustin Hoffman as Gerald Levin; James Earl Jones as Richard Parsons; and either Michael Douglas or Kiefer Sutherland (with his hair darkened, presumably) as Steve Case."
Eyeing media [IWantMedia]

The NYT documents the progress of the new AOL/Time Warner building at Columbus Circle which, thanks to a building department loophole, was originally considered an "alteration" because it preserves some of the foundations from a parking garage that previously existed in the space. The 2.8 million square-foot "alteration" will include a Whole Foods Market, a restaraunt by Jean Georges, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and AOL/Time Warner, if hasn't managed to further self-destruct by the time of completion.
A vertical neighborhood takes shape [NYT]

· Case Closed. [Post]
· AOL Chairman quits his post amid criticism. [NYT]
· Case resigns as AOL Time-Warner Chairman. [Reuters]
· AOL Time-Warner boss to quit. [BBC]
· Case resigns as AOL Chairman. [CNN]
· AOL Time-Warner's Case to stand down in May. [FT.com]

We must have subconsciously felt this one coming, what with the ungodly number of AOL/TW posts today. Steve Case is stepping down at the firm's annual shareholder's meeting in May. Kimsey was wrong.
Steve Case will step down as AOL/TW chair [WSJ]

What can we say, it's AOL/TW day at Gawker. Levin is everywhere; Case is everywhere. We have to.

CNBC's documentary on the AOL/Time Warner merger, titled "The Big Heist," is one big lesson in C-level schadenfreude. The big media big boys Sumner Redstone, John Malone, Michael Eisner, etc., can barely contain their glee as they talk about The Deal They Didn't Do. Levin is ultimately exhonerated for being an all-around nice guy, while Case is portrayed as the evil mastermind behind the operation. Case, according to ex-boss James Kimsey, has no intention of going anywhere.
How AOL took Time Warner
See also: Ex-TW Exec, Jeff Jarvis, on "The Big Heist":
The flim-flam spam man [Buzzmachine]

Michael Wolff goes trolling AOL chat roomsyou know, for research purposes and reveals what has long been the Internet's biggest open secret: AOL is essentially an "adult entertainment" business. Wolff correctly surmises that Time Warner "doesn't get it." Online dating is now socially acceptable, and the dirty side of AOL gets more respectable as the taboos about meeting people online erode. (John Podhoretz is doing it for chrissakes!)
You've got sex [NY Magazine]