Giant Owner Bailing Out

FLIPPING THE SCRIPT Giant Having tried with limited success to carve out a niche in the men's market, Giant founder Jamie Hooper is cashing out. According to sources, Hooper, a former publisher of Maxim and Stuff, has reached a deal to sell Giant to Radio One, a publicly-traded media company with some 70 urban-oriented radio stations. Hooper declined to comment, but sources believe he has been under increasing pressure from his principal backer, Dallas-based venture capitalist Mort Meyerson—who also happens to be his father-in-law. A former business partner of Ross Perot's, Meyerson initially staked Hooper with a $10 million-plus investment. "Giant hasn't really done what Jamie told him it would do," says one source who knows Hooper. "It must've made for an awkward Thanksgiving."