Anyone remember this one? LOL!!!!
Forbes.com
Fish-Oil Maker Zapata Cans Online Business
By Marcella Bernhard
Hey, nobody said conquering the Internet was as easy as making sausage casings. That didn't stop animal by-product manufacturer Zapata from trying...and, to no one's surprise, failing. The company, which once attempted a takeover of Excite, announced plans to pull the plug on its attempted Web portal Zap.com and the Webzine Charged on Jan. 5.
The news of Zap's demise marks the end of an era. The Internet business was so heady back in 1998, when the portal-wanna-be first came on the scene, that people scoffed only slightly at the news that an animal by-products company was taking on Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO - news) in the battle for those formerly coveted viewers.
Zapata (NYSE: ZAP - news) is the New York-based holding company that owns a majority share of Omega Protein, the largest marine protein company, and 40% of sausage casing producer Viskase.
Amid the demise of so many seemingly viable dot-coms--companies like eToys (Nasdaq: ETYS - news) and Priceline (Nasdaq: PCLN - news) are teetering on the brink of extinction--it's only fitting that we bid adieu to the one site that best represented all the absurdity of the whole dot-com craze.
On the Internet the company was, of course, a fish out of water, and its plans did meet with some derision. But, at the time, plenty of other companies were piling on the dot-com bandwagon, and Zapata had already demonstrated a knack for reinventing itself. It had originally been an oil company co-founded by former President George Bush, and is now controlled by Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Malcolm Glazer. His son, Avram, is Zap.com's chief executive.
In 1998, the company was so bold as to announce an unsolicited takeover bid for Web portal Excite for $1.68 billion in stock. Excite quickly rebuffed the offer, but Zapata used resulting publicity to build momentum for Zap.com, which it billed as a one-stop Internet search engine, directory and network of Web sites.
Zap.com's revenue was based on advertising and sponsorship on the Zap.com site, which at the time seemed perfectly reasonable since that was the business plan for almost every Web site.
Zap.com proved to be a money drain for Zapata, which owns 98% of Zap.com. The company blames its Internet operations for $5.7 million in losses for the nine months ended on Sept. 30. The company lost $20.3 million, or 85 cents per share, on revenue of $93.7 million in 1999.
Shares of Zap.com fell 40% yesterday on the OTC Bulletin Board to close at 38 cents. Zapata is faring a bit better, trading today at $1.88.
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