Business Briefs

Bonnie also will remain CEO, a position he has held since March.

CNET officials also said that Randall Mays, the chief financial officer of Clear Channel Communications, has been appointed to the CNET board.

CNET produces Web sites and television programs about technology. Its radio and TV programming is broadcast in almost 100 countries.

CNET and the Associated Press have a partnership in which AP supplements its own business and technology report with selected stories from CNET News. com. In return, CNET uses selected technology and general news stories from the AP on News.com.

Icebox.com axes

half its workforce

LOS ANGELES -- Internet entertainment company Icebox.com will eliminate half its staff as part of a restructuring plan to become profitable by the end of next year.

The Web site debuted in June as a place where high-profile television talent, such as Ron LaZebnick, an Icebox co-founder and co-producer of the Fox television series, "The Simpsons," could experiment without corporate creative constraints. The concept bore fruit in August when Showtime Networks Inc. licensed an Icebox animated show to turn into a live-action comedy series.

Icebox announced that its animated show, "Zombie College," created by Eric Kaplan, a producer of the Fox animated series "Futurama," was licensed by Fox Broadcasting Co. The network will produce a pilot for the show, about a student who turns down admission to Massachusetts Institute of Technology to attend a college populated by brain-eating zombies. The half-hour pilot is set to debut fall 2001.

Chilean leader

talks to South Bay

SAN JOSE -- Chilean President Ricardo Lagos, on a U.S. tour to attract technology investment in his country, announced free trade talks Wednesday during a lunchtime speech in the heart of Silicon Valley.

President Clinton said the United States and Chile have initiated talks on a free trade agreement and agreed that formal negotiations should start as soon as possible.

Early discussions between the two sides began in mid-October, and Lagos said he expects the talks to continue with Clinton's successor. Chile already has trade agreements with Canada and Mexico, and Lagos said his nation will seek a deal with the European Union.

Lagos visited with Cisco Systems Wednesday morning and signed a software deal with Oracle Tuesday night.

S.F. bank may have

helped launder funds

WASHINGTON -- Financial services giant Citigroup Inc. and Commercial Bank of San Francisco violated control rules and allowed some $1 billion in possibly illicit Eastern European money to move through their accounts, congressional investigators say.

The report is just the latest allegation of large-scale international money laundering, which has received increased notice after it was revealed last year that the Bank of New York, one of the nation's largest, had served as a conduit for $7 billion in Russian money, some of it believed to be from criminal activities.

Economy's growth

at four-year low

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. economy slowed dramatically during the summer to a growth rate of just 2.4 percent, the weakest pace in four years, as the Federal Reserve's inflation-fighting campaign began to pinch.

The Commerce Department released revised figures showing that the gross domestic product -- the total output of goods and services -- grew at a slower pace during the July-September quarter than previously believed. Growth in the spring had been a sizzling 5.6 percent.

Verizon terminates

NorthPoint merger

NEW YORK -- Verizon Communications called off its planned merger with high-speed Internet access provider NorthPoint Communications Group Inc. on Wednesday, citing a deterioration in NorthPoint's business performance and finances.

The $800 million deal, announced in August, would have given New York-based Verizon a 55-percent stake in NorthPoint and a greater reach for offering fast digital subscriber line, or DSL, Internet service.<