Hartcourt Companies (fka HRCT)

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SCMP Article: Online Broker Layoffs
A SinoBull competitor in trouble? Wonder how our company is doing?
http://technology.scmp.com/techbiz/ZZZEQVXSNVC.html
Friday, January 4, 2002
Firings touch 50pc at Boom


SAMUEL YEUNG
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Hong Kong's lay-off plague has spread to the SAR's first online broker, Boom Securities, with almost half its workforce axed. Managing director Mark Duff yesterday confirmed dismissals had taken place, but declined to give numbers.
"It was less than 50 per cent, but a substantial cut," he said. A source also said almost 50 per cent of its 58 employees had lost their jobs by way of immediate dismissal. Mr Duff said most of the cuts were made in the firm's development division. "The division has just completed a 20-month [products and infrastructure] development cycle," he said. The firm also closed its marketing division, Mr Duff said. Boom would scale back its media advertising following the closure, he said. The marketing job would shift to its sales team. The firm also closed its Causeway Bay branch to reduce costs. The redundancies come just weeks after the closure of rival 2Cube Securities, a joint venture between Pacific Century CyberWorks and JPMorgan Chase. A few days later, Charles Schwab said it would close its Hong Kong stock trading service this month. While declining to say if the firm was making a profit Mr Duff said Boom was "extremely well-financed", and its multi-market trading service had proven valuable to local traders.