A Houston company with an interest in a marine protein producer announced today it is acquiring online magazines Word and Charged, which had been shut down last month by its owner ICON CMT Corp.
Zapata Corp., which is taking over the magazines, will also change its corporate name to Zap to mark its move into Internet commerce, according to Avie Glazer, president and CEO of Zap.
Glazer said Zap plans to make other acquisitions to become an aggressive player in the electronic commerce market.
“We have a sizable war chest, in excess of $400 million. And that separates us from everyone else. We are not a start up. We are not a dreamer. We have a lot of cash,” Glazer said.
Under the deal, Zap has agreed to purchase at least $2 million of communications and technical services such as Web hosting from ICON.
“This deal is very attractive. We have been able to turn this into a revenue stream, as well as having a significant client over time,” Baxter said, referring to Zap’s decision to retain ICON CMT for technical services.
ICON had shut down the publications because they didn’t fit into the company’s core business model. Word had been considered a pioneer site when it was established in 1995 before traditional media companies put their content on the Internet.
Zapata Corp. was formerly an oil and gas company founded by George Bush in the 1950s. Today, it is a producer of marine protein through its subsidiary, Omega Protein.
