Most of the people who had PCs did not have modems and could not use those PCs as communicating devices. They really were using them for spreadsheets or word processing or storing recipes or playing games or what have you.

Kimsey groomed Case to become chairman and CEO when Kimsey retired and the transition formally took place in 1991 (CEO) and 1995 (chairman). Case later joined the company as a full-time marketing employee. As part of the changes that gave birth to Quantum Case changed the company's strategy creating an online service called Quantum Link (Q-Link for short) for the Commodore 64 in 1985 with programmer (and AOL co-founder) Marc Seriff.

In early 2011 he was selected by President Barack Obama to serve as Chairman of the Startup America Partnership and named to the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. In addition he serves as chair of the Case Foundation run by his wife Jean Case. Since his retirement as chairman of AOL Time Warner in 2003 he has gone on to build a variety of new businesses through his investment company Revolution.