Zapata Corp, the acquisitive fish oil-cum-internet portal company, has retained Salomon Smith Barney to advise on its acquisition strategy as well as alternatives, it says. Zapata and its Zap internet subsidiary (www.zap.com) have already signed letters of intent to acquire 31 web sites and e-commerce businesses. Critics have charged that Zap’s bulk-buying approach looks very old-fashioned. For instance, lining up a bunch of publications on a site did not really work for Time Warner Inc’s Pathfinder site and that was started years ago. Web users want and need more to keep them locked onto a site or to make it their home page. Maybe Zap knows this deep down, however, as it did try to buy Excite Inc a few months back but was rebuffed. The news caused a brief lift in Zap’s share price before closing down $0.375 at $11.625, a modest fall on another dire day for technology stocks. The company says it has $120m in cash and is debt-free.
