ElephantTalk Acquires Billion Online Limited
11 November 2003 - 1:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
ElephantTalk Acquires Billion Online Limited Acquisition to Fuel
Growth in China's VoIP and Softswitching Market HONG KONG, Nov. 10
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Elephant Talk Communications, Inc.
(BULLETIN BOARD: ETLK) http://www.elephanttalk.com/, today
announced that it has agreed to purchase a majority stake in
Billion Online Limited (BOL), an integrated IP-based telecom
solutions developer in China. This acquisition provides the Company
an immediate entry into the worldwide Voice Over Internet Protocol
(VoIP) market on PC-to-phone, packet telephony and other Internet-
related services while increasing its presence and telecom service
offerings throughout China and the Fareast Billion Online is a
popular China-based system integrator serving major sectors of the
Internet industry in China. It's top selling PC-to-phone system,
"iTalk", is branded as "eTalk" by ElephantTalk. "eTalk" users can
download software and purchase an access PIN through the web and
start talking to their friends over the phone in minutes. Quality
is comparable to regular toll quality while significantly reducing
the cost for the user. Since ElephantTalk began marketing the
service in September 2002 it has become one of the hottest
PC-to-phone services in the Fareast. China Unicom is also co-
branding the service to its customers throughout China. In
addition, BOL's newest product, the Next Generation SoftsWitch
(NGSW), has been launched in Shanghai to serve the broadband
telephony subscribers of China Railcom and its strategic partner,
China-on-line Inc. BOL also provides an Enterprise Instant Message
(EIM) service, a communication tool utilized in Virtual Private
Networks within organizations to increase productivity. These
services provide ElephantTalk with increasing access to China's
rapidly growing telecom market while keeping the Company on the
cutting edge technologically. In combination with "eTalk" they give
the Company additional high margin services to compliment their
existing telecom offerings. "Our investment in BOL will allow us
the latitude to move beyond the traditional wholesale voice
industry into the extended service provider's business. We will
co-brand or OEM our existing iTalk and eTalk PC-to-phone products
and work with our ISP partners not only in the Asian regions but
worldwide," said Mr. Russelle Choi, Chairman & CEO of
ElephantTalk. "With BOL's Next Generation SoftsWitch, it will also
help us to serve the new operators, especially the cable operators,
to provide the next generation broadband telephony and other IP
related services to their subscribers in a timely manner" "We are
thrilled to be part of ElephantTalk's vision," said Yu Xin,
Managing Director of BOL. "I'm especially proud to see my team
acknowledged for their expertise in their IP-based application
development and to see their talent leveraged in the emerging VoIP
and Softswitching market. This is truly an exiting time for us."
About Billion Online Limited Billion Online Limited is an
integrated IP-based solutions developer. iTalk is BOL's most
successful product which is branded as HuaXia Card and Global Card
by China Unicom in China, and eTalk by ElephantTalk in the Far
East. It's Enterprise Instant Message (EIM) is an ICQ-workalike
product utilizied in Virtual Private Networks. The company's newest
product, the Next Generation SoftsWitch(NGSW), combines all the
Class 4 and 5 switch's features including 3-way calling, call
forwarding, call blocking, caller ID, speed dial, and others. More
information on Billion Online Limited can be found at
http://www.bol2000.com/ About ElephantTalk Elephant Talk
Communications, Inc. is a leading telecommunications company
established in 1994. Located and operated in Hong Kong with offices
in California, Hong Kong and Singapore, the Company owns switching
facilities in China, Hong Kong, US, and Singapore. ElephantTalk
operates international long distance services on both sides of the
Pacific to over 220 foreign destinations. They enable
telecommunications carriers and other service providers the ability
to offer long distance voice, fax, data and VoIP services to their
end-customers, through an advanced and scaleable network. More
information on ElephantTalk can be found at
http://www.elephanttalk.com/. The statements made in this press
release, which are not historical facts, contains forward-looking
statements concerning potential developments affecting the
business, prospects, financial conditions and other aspects of the
company to which this release pertains. The actual results of the
specific items described in the release, and the company's
operations generally, may differ materially from what is projected
in such forward- looking statements. Although such statements are
based upon the best judgments of management of the company as of
the date of the release, significant deviations on magnitude,
timing and other factors may result from business risks and
uncertainties including, without limitation, the company's
dependence on third parties, general market and economic
conditions, technical factors, the availability of outside capital,
receipt of revenues and other factors, many of which are beyond the
control of the company. The company disclaims any obligation to
update information contained in any forward- looking statement. For
more information ... please contact Elephant Talk Communications,
Inc. Pius Lam Tel: (852) 2 707070 3 Fax: (852) 2 707070 7 Email: Or
Billion Online Limited Yu Xin Tel: (86) 755-2589-0232 Fax: (86)
755-2589-0233 Email: Or DATASOURCE: Elephant Talk Communications,
Inc. CONTACT: Pius Lam of Elephant Talk Communications, Inc.,
+1-852-2 707070 3, or +1-852-2 707070 7, , or ; or Yu Xin of
Billion Online Limited, +1-86-755-2589-0232, or Fax,
+1-86-755-2589-0233, , Web site: http://www.elephanttalk.com/
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