SKALI LAGI (Chapter 3)

Chapter 3 will start after Multimedia City did not a since. Late 1996, Syed Jalaludin introduced some one company in basic IT and New Media to help Tengku Farith. The company is a Alam Teknokrat. In Alam Teknokrat will have Maznida Mokhtar, Mohd Reza Shafiee, Mohd Hisham Mohd Isa and Harjono Zainal Abidin. In the same time, Tengku Farith will have one company is a ACIF with his friend Azmi and Aimi. Sometime in November, Maznida call Tengku Farith to discuss about Alta Vista project. First meet about Alta Vista at a Surf Internet Café, Bangsar. Alam Teknokrat was represented by Ida, Reza and Sharifah Julina. Sharifah Julina is a Ida’s sister-in-law and she is a lawyer for this project. Then from Acif Resources will represented by Tengku Farith and Azmi. This project is not easy to get because Tengku Farith will have particular from SingTel, Singapore. At Disember 1996, Tengku Farith and the team member will get the project. He want the billion money to realization the project. He takes loan from CIMB and Perwira Affin Bank. Harjono had become enamoured with the concept of an Internet Exchange. It would be called the KLIX. We finally ironed out a settlement to buy out his stake in the company and he left in May, 1997. At last, our dream had come true. Little did we expect that our dream would soon turn into a nightmare.

SKALI LAGI (Chapter 4)

In chapter 4, they launched a website with address http//:altavista.skali.com. The name of SKALI will choose because “skali” in Malay means “oneness” which is the fundamental philosophy of SKALI’s culture. Within three months of the launch, they realized that their business model was not working. The failure to generate traffic was partly their fault, partly AltaVista’s and partly the circumstances at the time. In 1997, they were facing serious financial problem. They were facing bankruptcy. By December 1997, they managed to get a much-needed infusion of cash from Japanese venture firm, Nomura Jafco. In May 1998, Perbadanan Usahawan Nasional Berhad (PUNB) gave a loan but not without strict conditions.
The biggest problem they faced at the time was they couldn’t even pay them employees their full salaries. At the same time, they were receiving letters of demands from the lawyers of their contributors. On October 23, they have the meeting and with that, the entire staff walked out on them. They started getting e-mails from anonymous addresses to demanded answers for what’s going on with the company. They worked on everything to make sure no sabotage could take place. After discussion with some ex-worker, they agreed for came back in this company. The deal was pay 30% of the salaries owed to them up front and the remainder would be paid in installments over the next four months. In all, including the directors, their staff strength grew back to 17 people.