June 7, 2011 
Many people will be interested to hear about PeopleBrowsr the “high-tech social analytics and engagement company” whose web site boasts clients like Honda, Bacardi, Westfield and Fox. Not half as interested, though, as they will be to see that the founder and president of the apparently highflying PeopleBrowsr is one Jodee Rich.
Taking Murdoch and Packer
In an earlier life, the US-born but Australian-educated John David (Jodee) Rich founded OneTel, the mobile phone network which collapsed spectacularly in a sea of debt in 2001. But that was not before the country’s media heirs Lachlan Murdoch and James Packer had invested a total of A$950m in the company which lasted just five years. They would later claim: “Like all (OneTel) shareholders, we are angry. We’ve been profoundly misled as to the true financial position of the company.”
I wonder if the ‘Fox’ PeopleBrowsr claims as a client really could be the News Corp company that lost A$500m in OneTel. Still, it’s been 10 years since the collapse (even if one Sydney Court case ended only last week). Perhaps Rupert Murdoch has forgiven and forgotten. Yeah, right…
I guess fidnnig useful, reliable information on the internet isn’t hopeless after all.