Jim Manzi quickly got out from under when IBM Corp bought Lotus Development Corp, but now he’s been bought by another giant, AT&T Corp. In January, Manzi joined Industry.Net Inc, a Pittsburgh company formed to provide secure business-to-business Electronic Data Interchange over the Internet (CI No 2,837). Yesterday, AT&T announced that it would merge its New Media Services unit with Industry.Net – which is now in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to create Nets Inc, an Internet company designed to create the largest business-to-business marketplace on the Web. Nets Inc will have a combined staff of about 300, terms of the deal were not disclosed. Manzi will serve as chairman and chief executive of Nets. Industry.Net and AT&T Business Network will remain separate Web sites, but with advanced links to drive traffic between the two. Initially, AT&T Corp will be only a minority shareholder in the new company.
