Who is L. Bob Rife from Snow Crash and what is their importance?

L. Bob Rife is a cable television and fiber optic baron with a world wide monopoly on information transfer. Rife is the primary financier of the Reverend Wayne's Pearly Gates franchise and Rife Bible College. Rife financed extensive archaeological excavations of the city of Eridu in Iraq. Rife purchased an aircraft carrier as a personal yacht, which morphed into the Raft as he picked up refugees in south Asia and infected more followers with the Asherah virus. Although it was Lagos who brought the idea of the Asherah virus to Rife, Rife was the one who saw its true potential as a means to control the masses of the world.