IN BRIEF

     Primedia purchases
     Seventeen publisher
     
      NEW YORK -- Primedia Inc. said Friday it agreed to acquire certain assets of the Cowles Media Co. from McClatchy Newspapers Inc. for $200 million.
      Primedia, formerly K-III Communications, publishes New York and Seventeen magazines and produces educational programming. McClatchy, based in Sacramento, Calif., is a newspaper company.
      The acquisitions are subject to McClatchy's completing its $1.4 billion purchase of Cowles Media. The deal, announced in November, is expected to close March 31. McClatchy, which is buying Cowles Media, said it intended to sell Cowles' non-newspaper assets.
      McClatchy said it is shedding the Cowles businesses because magazine and book publishing is not part of its core operations. The company intends to focus on operating the Star Tribune in Minneapolis.
     
     Internet bookseller
     suffers system crash
     
      SEATTLE -- Amazon.com Inc.'s shares fell 7.6 percent on the second day after an outage left the online bookstore crippled for about 11 hours Wednesday.
      The company's shares have fallen 11 percent since Wednesday, underscoring that the company's total reliance on the Internet to sell its 2.5 million book titles makes it vulnerable to system failure.
      Amazon, already locked in a battle with Barnes & Noble Inc., which started its Web site in May, will be facing increased competition when Borders Group Inc. opens its Internet site in a few weeks.
     
     Ex-GM exec Lopez
     injured in accident
     
      BURGOS, Spain -- Jose Ignacio Lopez, the top executive at the center of an industrial espionage dispute between General Motors and Volkswagen, was in stable, but still serious, condition Friday following a traffic accident.
      Lopez, 55, was injured when the Audi 80 he was traveling in collided with a truck near the northern city of Burgos Thursday, a spokesman at the Interior Ministry's office in the city said.
      A cost-cutting expert, Lopez was accused by GM of taking secret documents with him when he left the auto giant for Volkswagen in 1993.
      Lopez resigned from VW late 1996 as part of GM's demands for settling its industrial espionage lawsuit against the German company.
     
     Echo Bay maintains
     debt schedule
     
      ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Echo Bay Mines Ltd. remains in compliance with the terms of its outstanding debt as it undertakes its second round of belt-tightening in six months, Chief Financial Officer Peter Cheesbrough said.
      Other gold producers haven't been so lucky as they struggle to cope with gold prices declining to an 18-year low. With a strong U.S. dollar and relatively stable economic conditions, gold has lost its clout as a hedge against inflation.
      That's forced gold mining companies to cut back on production. In November, Pegasus Gold Inc. shut its newest mine when it became uneconomical to operate. Dwindling cash flows then put Pegasus in violation of its debt agreements, and the Spokane, Wash.-based company continues to negotiate with its lenders.
     
     AgriBioTech buys
     four seed companies
     
      AgriBioTech Inc. said Friday it will acquire four forage and turf grass seed companies for a total of $29.6 million in cash and stock.
      The companies are Zajac Performance Seeds Inc. and its Oregon affiliate, Ohio Seed Co., Van Dyke Seed Co. and Las Vegas Fertilizer Co.
      AgriBioTech said the four companies have combined annual revenue of $46 million.
     
     GameTech stock
     drops after report
     
      TEMPE, Ariz. -- GameTech International Inc. shares fell as much as 47 percent after the developer of electronic bingo game systems reported losses on a new product.
      The company said problems with its new Satellite Bingo Network and delays in introducing another new product may push revenue expected in fiscal 1998 into the next fiscal year.
      GameTech said it lost money on The Satellite Bingo Network, which began Dec. 1, because a number of bingo halls delayed their use of the game.