Ebook: Rich Kids

Young, hip and smart, like the rich kids who backed it, One.Tel grew faster than any company in Australian history - then vanished in a puff of smoke.At the height of the hype, in November 1999, One.Tel was worth more than $5 billion, almost as much as Kerry Packer's entire empire. Its founder, Jodee Rich, was worth close to $2 billion, with two houses, a jet, a helicopter, three powerboats and a private resort in the WhitSundays. Less than 18 months later the 'fun and friendly' phone company was gone, the Packers and Murdochs had lost nearly $1 billion, and Jodee Rich was being investigated by Australia's corporate cops.RICH KIDS is the inside story of One.Tel's meteoric rise and fall, told by award-winning investigative journalist Paul Barry. It's a tale of chaos, incompetence, greed and deceit; of an era when huge fortunes were made in the crazy dot-com boom; and of James Packer's and Lachlan Murdoch's business brilliance - or lack of it.Above all, RICH KIDS is the story...