Letter from Dr. Alan Phan:
December 11th, 1999
Dear Shareholders:
I did not expect my letter of 12/10/99 would cause such a controversy. I guess anything personal is taboo in this money system. In fact, I wrote most of my letter
to reply to those 100's of Emails I receive each day. Many questions from these shareholders were related to my personal character and interest. If these matters are
none of your concern, let's drop the subject and go back to Hartcourt's business.
1. My China trip:
I am leaving today and will be back on 12/19/99. My objective is to finalize the agreements with two powerful Chinese companies that want to be partners of
Sinobull.com. Once they are in, the American partner will agree to invest in Sinobull.com and the IPO will be underwritten by a major investment banker in Hong
Kong. Our target date to sign the underwriting agreement for the IPO is still end of February 2000. Once this step is completed, we would have achieved an
important landmark in our mission. Hartcourt will be on the same level with China.com.
2. Wireless ISP and IP Phone:
The CEO and CTO of ESAT will accompany me in this trip to work with Innostar on creating a blueprint for the ISP system. Innostar just received $35 Million
in capital funding from the Chinese governement to jump-start the project. We should be able to get everything ready by March 2000. Hartcourt is negotiating to
acquire 40 percent of an American IP phone company to work with us as our technology partner in this project.
3. New Directors:
We are still negotiating with 3 individuals who are very well-known in the industry. Due to the holiday season, they will come on board sometime in January
2000. Meanwhile, we have appointed Mr. Manu Ohri, our CFO; and Mr. Frederic Cohn, our Corporate VP, to replace the two members who just resigned. The
resume of Mr. Ohri and Mr. Cohn will be available on our Web site next week. By the way, we will have our annual shareholders' meeting on June 19th, 2000; and
a complete slate of Board members will be presented for approval.
4. New CEO and CTO:
We are still interviewing and negotiating with a list of excellent talents. We are confident that the positions will be filled by January 2000, before the IPO of
Sinobull.com.
5. NASDAQ Application:
We are running right into the holiday season, which means delays >from every place. However, we should file our application by December 1999.
6. LINUX Platform:
The Chinese hi-tech world is very interested in Linux software as the new operating standard for computers as well as PDA's and set top boxes. A major Linux
software company is interested in working with Hartcourt to develop their system along with our Sinobull and ISP projects. We might take control of a NASDAQ
company to merge with this software company. Details of the transaction will be available once the agreements are signed.
7. Other Matters:
Many are still asking about the number of employees we have. Here is a brief rundown:
Hartcourt headquarters: 6
FinTel: 32
UAC Online: 24
StreamingAsia: 27
Pego Systems: 36
ECS: 630
New auditors and the PR firm will be announced this month. Details of the 1/15/2000 party will be released this week. We are sorry for this delay; we had
expected less than 15 shareholders, we've gotten over 150 people signed up. Other than that, Hartcourt land is busy and happy.
I might be a very informal CEO in communications, but I am dead serious about our mission of building Hartcourt into the leading Internet company in Asia. See
you at the mountain top.
Sincerely,
Dr. Alan V. Phan
Chairman & CEO
