Packers' $33m swoop on Seek

The Packer family''s Publishing and Broadcasting Limited(PBL) group has confirmed its intention to purchase 25 per cent of online jobs site seek.com.au for $33 million. The announcement came after the Packer''s previous online recruitment foray - monster.com.au - closed its doors last week. A joint venture between PBL and US firm Monster.com, monster.com.au was believed to be losing $6 million per year.

Prior to the monster closure, The Australian reported that PBL was anxious to drop its stake in Monster to smooth the way for a partnership with Seek in order to boost the quality of content offered by the ninemsn website joint venture with Microsoft. Monster.com.au had consistently lagged behind market leader Seek and the CareerOne service owned by News Ltd.