"You're never as good or as bad as the Street says you are" - AOL Case

Steve Case, the under fire chairman of AOL Time Warner, used a speech yesterday to outline his plans for the media giant but avoided the biggest question of all: his standing within the company.

In a speech to investors at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia XI Conference here, Case detailed the many challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for the world's largest media company. Case has been under pressure from reports that a faction of board members was plotting to remove him as their chairman.

Although investors attending the conference stopped short of asking Case to comment on the reports, the embattled chairman touched on AOL Time Warner's challenges since the merger.

"I've learned a lot over the past decade, including you're never as good or as bad as the press or the Street says you are," Case said about the company. Still, he maintained his unwavering belief that the company will be poised to manoeuvre around AOL Time Warner's current difficulties.

Case also clarified his responsibilities in the company's upper echelon. He said he will continue to lead the company's board of directors, work closely with CEO Richard Parsons on strategy, and help fix some of the many problems affecting the troubled America Online division.

Case's comments come as reports continue to surface about a faction of board members attempting to oust the chairman. Although the company has denied that Case's position is in trouble, the process could be drawn out in a timeline set by the company's bylaws. The issue could reach a crossroads next March when board members vote to renominate members for another one-year term. The question of Case's tenure could also be played out at a shareholder vote the following May.

Still, Case remains committed to solving the many problems that have plagued the greatest media merger in history. Besides its depressed stock price, AOL Time Warner is taking steps to fix its embattled AOL division, which is suffering from massive revenue declines in its online advertising business and from an investigation by the Securities Exchange Commission for the way it accounted certain revenue.

Jim Hu writes for News.com