<nettime> further adventures of a webzine

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[excerpted from the NYTimes online, April 27, 1998]

Buyer to Revive Two Online Magazines

<...>

Zapata Corp., a food-processing business based in
Houston, will announce Monday that it is acquiring Word
and Charged magazines from Icon CMT Corp., as a first
step in a "radical transformation," according to
Zapata's chief executive, Avram Glazer.

As part of the refocused business, Zapata, founded by
former President George Bush and a partner in 1953 as
an oil-drilling business, will also change its name to
Zap. Under Glazer's family, which acquired Zapata in
1994, the company has left the energy business.

"Zapata is launching a major strategic initiative to
acquire Internet and electronic-commerce companies,"
Glazer said. Last month, the initial public offering of
a marine protein products business in which Zapata
owned a stake, Omega Protein Corp., raised $130
million.

 <...>

Icon CMT, a network services provider based in
Weehawken, N.J., suspended publication of the two
magazines in March and laid off their employees, saying
the operations did not fit into the company's core
business.

<...>

Enter Glazer, whose family is known for its seemingly
disparate investments. Glazer's father, Malcolm, bought
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers football team in 1995 for $192
million. The Glazer family also owns the Houlihan's
restaurant chain.

<...> the employees of the magazines would be rehired.

<...>

Glazer said he saw symmetry in Zapata's decision to
refocus itself around a new technology. "When George
Bush founded Zapata 40 years ago, he was in the cutting
edge of technology in the oil-rig business," Glazer
said. "You can almost relate it to this point in the
Internet."

 <...>

[Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company]
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