The Cutting Edge: COMPUTING / TECHNOLOGY / INNOVATION : Former Lotus Chief to Head Online Firm

Jim Manzi, chairman of Lotus Development Corp. when it was acquired by IBM, has ended a 3 1/2-month stint of unemployment by becoming president and chief executive of a company that develops online marketing for businesses.

Manzi said Tuesday that he decided to drop plans for a longer sabbatical and join Pittsburgh-based Industry.Net Corp. after considering several career possibilities.

“My fixation has always been on the business marketplace, not the consumer marketplace,” Manzi said. “Real business is getting done, and there is a model for money being created here.”

On Oct. 11, Manzi announced that he was ending his nine years as chief executive of Lotus. Four months earlier, International Business Machines Corp. had purchased Lotus for $3.5 billion, in the software industry’s largest takeover.

Manzi, who said he prefers being a leader to a follower, made nearly $80 million on his Lotus stock in the IBM deal.

He said he now holds a major stake in the privately held Industry.Net, but he declined to provide details.

More than 4,000 companies in industry and manufacturing pay Industry.Net to offer their services on the Internet to more than 200,000 subscribers.

Subscribers call up the service about 2 million times a month, giving Industry.Net the largest business site on the Internet, Manzi said.

Donald H. Jones, who has been Industry.Net’s chief executive since he founded the business in 1990, will become chairman. He approached Manzi about the new job about six weeks ago.

Manzi said he will focus on helping the company, which employs about 150 at 17 regional U.S. offices, build on its rapid growth and move overseas.