Peter Norton

David Blumstein, the president and chief operating officer at Peter Norton Computing since May, has resigned over differences in management style with other members of the executive team. "It just didn't work out," said Ron Posner, chief executive of the Santa Monica software company best known for a utilities program bearing the name of company founder and software wizard Peter Norton. Posner said he would assume the duties of the presidency and had no immediate plans to replace Blumstein.

"The Broadway Mural," John Valadez's landmark, 60-foot-long painting of downtown Los Angeles street life, has been rescued from the auction block. Peter Norton, a Los Angeles-based computer guru and a major collector of contemporary art, has purchased the epic artwork, along with a group of 28 portraits by Valadez.

Symantec and Peter Norton Computing, two makers of personal computer software, said Monday that they have decided to merge in what industry observers called one of the best moves in the always undulating sea of software companies and products. Symantec, based in Cupertino, and the smaller Norton company, of Santa Monica, both make "utility" software for personal computers. Utility software programs help users manage the functions of their machines, and organize and protect information.

Utopian digital technology may still be far from a reality, but computers are a fact of life. They even affect the cultural sector, where some power players have taken to patronage and art collecting. That's something one can't help but ponder while wandering through the Carnegie Art Museum, where the current show comes courtesy of respected contemporary art collectors Eileen and Peter Norton.

It is a rare quiet day at the Santa Monica villa of computer software king Peter Norton and his wife, Eileen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has recently come and gone, as have William Gray, head of the United Negro College Fund, a group of 800 looky-loos on a garden tour and the guests at a preschool fund raiser. The Nortons are hanging out at the kitchen table. Their butler, who used to work for Malcolm Forbes, hovers discreetly. "We're ordinary.

Peter Norton Computing Inc. has named Ron Posner as its new chief executive. The announcement was made by Peter Norton, founder and chairman of PNCI, who previously counted chief executive among his own titles. Posner has been active in microcomputer and software companies for more than a decade, holding key management positions previously with Ashton-Tate Corp., Borland International and Ansa Software. PNCI, Santa Monica, has developed software used in more than 1 million computers worldwide.

Peter Norton, the "software saint" who seven years ago took an abrupt leave of the computer software industry he helped to build, will make a comeback this fall. Perhaps fittingly, his platform will be CD-ROM. Culver City-based MediaX Corp. plans to announce today that it has contracted with Norton to publish a series of five titles featuring Norton teaching computer owners how to use and trouble-shoot problems with their machines and popular software.

In a move that helps resolve a legal entanglement and merges two of America's largest and most adventurous private collections of contemporary art--both based in Los Angeles--Peter and Eileen Norton announced Monday their purchase of the collection of Clyde and Karen Beswick. The acquisition adds about 700 works to the Nortons' 1,600-piece holding. Terms of the agreement prohibit disclosure of the purchase price, but sources close to the collectors estimate that the Nortons paid about $1.

A photo self-portrait of Catherine Opie shows the artist ornately tattooed and dressed in leather, with a nipple ring, multiple needles piercing the length of bare arms and a leather mask pulled down over her face. Los Angeles businessman and art collector Clyde Beswick bought the artwork sight unseen, then hung it over the sofa in his Mt. Washington home, where others might place a landscape or a bowl of fruit. Those in L.A.'

To the millions of personal computer users who have come to depend on his software programs and who have dubbed him the "software saint," the realization that Peter Norton has limits like any other mere mortal may be a bit hard to accept. But it's true. Peter Norton--by his own admission--no longer can run Peter Norton Computing, the software publishing house he founded in Santa Monica six years ago. And so today marks the completion of one of the most critical transitions in the life of a young company: from management by its founder to management by professionals recruited from other successful computer ventures.

Back in January, Suzanne Bellah knew the Carnegie Art Museum was on a roll. Attendance was up, as were the membership rolls. And the 20-year-old, city-owned institution was growing accustomed to showcasing traveling exhibitions of some of the biggest names in contemporary art. Still, the museum's director was floored that month when the Carnegie was included on a short list of venues tapped to receive artwork from one of the country's leading private collections of contemporary art.

Peter Norton, a computer software magnate, and his wife, Eileen, have continued to support Southern California art and recently gave works worth more than $3 million from their collection to 29 institutions in the United States and England. Recipients included the venerable Tate Gallery in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, as well as smaller, regional museums, including the Laguna Art Museum and the Orange County Museum of Art.

It's not a truckload of Van Goghs and Picassos that fell into the laps of two Orange County art museums Tuesday, but officials at both are thrilled at the 175 works given them by Los Angeles art collectors Peter and Eileen Norton. The Nortons are donating 124 pieces, most by young California artists, to the Laguna Art Museum and 51 to the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach from their ever-expanding holdings of contemporary art.

Los Angeles-based art collectors Peter and Eileen Norton have distributed about 1,000 works of contemporary art to 29 museums in the United States and England. The gift, valued by the Nortons at a total of more than $3 million, has provided a bonanza of edgy, adventurous works to institutions ranging from the mighty Tate Gallery in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York to small community cultural centers such as the Carnegie Museum in Oxnard.

A photo self-portrait of Catherine Opie shows the artist ornately tattooed and dressed in leather, with a nipple ring, multiple needles piercing the length of bare arms and a leather mask pulled down over her face. Los Angeles businessman and art collector Clyde Beswick bought the artwork sight unseen, then hung it over the sofa in his Mt. Washington home, where others might place a landscape or a bowl of fruit. Those in L.A.'

In a move that helps resolve a legal entanglement and merges two of America's largest and most adventurous private collections of contemporary art--both based in Los Angeles--Peter and Eileen Norton announced Monday their purchase of the collection of Clyde and Karen Beswick. The acquisition adds about 700 works to the Nortons' 1,600-piece holding. Terms of the agreement prohibit disclosure of the purchase price, but sources close to the collectors estimate that the Nortons paid about $1.

Peter Norton, a computer software magnate, and his wife, Eileen, have continued to support Southern California art and recently gave works worth more than $3 million from their collection to 29 institutions in the United States and England. Recipients included the venerable Tate Gallery in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, as well as smaller, regional museums, including the Laguna Art Museum and the Orange County Museum of Art.

Utopian digital technology may still be far from a reality, but computers are a fact of life. They even affect the cultural sector, where some power players have taken to patronage and art collecting. That's something one can't help but ponder while wandering through the Carnegie Art Museum, where the current show comes courtesy of respected contemporary art collectors Eileen and Peter Norton.

Peter Norton, the "software saint" who seven years ago took an abrupt leave of the computer software industry he helped to build, will make a comeback this fall. Perhaps fittingly, his platform will be CD-ROM. Culver City-based MediaX Corp. plans to announce today that it has contracted with Norton to publish a series of five titles featuring Norton teaching computer owners how to use and trouble-shoot problems with their machines and popular software.

It is a rare quiet day at the Santa Monica villa of computer software king Peter Norton and his wife, Eileen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has recently come and gone, as have William Gray, head of the United Negro College Fund, a group of 800 looky-loos on a garden tour and the guests at a preschool fund raiser. The Nortons are hanging out at the kitchen table. Their butler, who used to work for Malcolm Forbes, hovers discreetly. "We're ordinary.