Zap Corp, a subsidiary of fish oil and food processing titan Zapata Corp, plans to re-launch its internet initiative. Founded as an oil drilling business by former President George Bush in 1953, the company became the laughing-stock of the internet through most of 1998. It first made headlines in April by acquiring defunct and strikingly unprofitable webzines Word and Charged from Icon CMT (CI No 3,398). If that move intrigued observers, Zapata’s hostile takeover bid for Excite Inc prompted belly-laughs (CI 3,416). There followed a buying spree of sites like CoolChat, Happy Puppy and Green, properties so marginal they made Word and Charged appear positively business-like by comparison. In October, Zapata fulfilled most expectations of it by announcing that it had abandoned its portal dreams (CI No 3,518). Apparently those obituaries were premature. Zap now plans to focus on developing an internet-related brand name and network of sites (hey, that’s original). Some time during the next few weeks Zap says it will reintroduce the Zap.com page. Executives say possible relationships, alliances and agreements with internet and e-commerce companies will be reviewed, which sounds like it could be good news for Word, at least. So why the change of heart? Apparently the lure of high-flying net stocks proved just too tempting. Since we began our strategic review two months ago, global financial markets have strengthened dramatically, explained Zapata Corp president Avie Glazer. The internet sector, in particular, has been positively impacted.
