Finding the missing link.

After TCI, Jerome Kern confronts another entrepreneurial test

When Jerome Kern dealt himself out of a job as vice chairman of TCI, he could have worked anywhere. Or, given his substantial wealth, nowhere at all.

But he picked LinkShare, a little-known Internet start-up that seeks to become a major clearinghouse for e-commerce transactions, becoming CEO. In doing so, Kern has sent an unmistakable message to the investment community and Internet aficionados alike: LinkShare's obscurity is about to end.

Kern was TCI vice chairman from June 1998 until TCI's merger with AT&T--which he helped engineer--closed in March. His other credits include a stint as an attorney at …