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Technology Stocks : Purchasepro.com Inc. (PPRO) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: VIPER85730 who wrote (563)	4/19/2001 9:17:35 PM
From: VIPER85730	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 748

LETTER TO SHAREHOLDERS Las Vegas, NV (March 12, 2001) Dear Shareholders, In April, I will begin a program of selling a portion of the PurchasePro common stock that I currently own. Under the selling plan, I have deposited shares with an investment bank with instructions to sell shares on each of the next 250 trading days, provided that the trading price is at least $15.00. As the stock price rises, I will sell additional shares, up to a maximum of 20,000 shares in any one day.* The bank will have no authority to expand, limit, or suspend such daily sales. I plan to sell this portion of my shares first to repay existing debt, including debt which I incurred in purchasing $20 million worth of PurchasePro stock during 2000, and thereafter to diversify my personal financial portfolio. I believe a program of limited, daily sales allows me to make conservative personal financial decisions, while retaining my financial commitment to the long-term success of PurchasePro. Many of you know that I made a commitment not to sell any of my holdings in PurchasePro until the company achieved cash profitability. In fourth quarter of 2000, we reported for the first time cash earnings per share. I also want to point out that during the year 2000, I did not receive any compensation in the form salary or bonus, nor was I granted any options since our initial public offering. It is important for you to know that my involvement with PurchasePro has not changed in any way. I love this company and devote every waking hour to making it earn a significant return on your investment. I have chosen the mechanism of pre-established sales in predetermined amounts to help reduce any concerns that I might be selling at times when I have information that you don't have. I hope that by announcing my plans in advance, I am making it clear that my decision isn't based on some positive or negative current event or circumstance. Lastly, you should know that even after completion of this program, my holdings in PurchasePro will continue to represent the vast majority of my net worth. I believe strongly in the current and future growth and profitability of PurchasePro. My commitment to you is to continue to drive value for all of our shareholders. Very truly yours, Charles E. Johnson, Jr. * As the stock price rises, I will sell between 2,500 and 20,000 additional shares per day according to the following predetermined schedule. Even when the stock exceeds $50, my daily sales will represent less than one-half of one percent of our recent daily trading volume: At $15 and above, 2,500 shares per day At $20 and above, 5,000 shares per day At $25 and above, 7,500 shares per day At $30 and above, 10,000 shares per day At $35 and above, 12,500 shares per day At $40 and above, 15,000 shares per day At $45 and above, 17,500 shares per day At $50 and above, 20,000 shares per day

To: VIPER85730 who wrote (563)	4/20/2001 7:18:16 AM
From: VIPER85730	Respond to of 748

Here is an old article that I referred to regarding creditors forcing JR to sell shares. Like I said, this is not something that Johnson wanted or could do anything about. It was just a sign of the times. VIPER~~~~~~~< .......................................................... =PurchasePro CEO: Forced To Sell Shares By Creditors>PPRO 04/10 3:32 PM (DJ) Story 4837 (PPRO) By Ross Snel Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Charles Johnson Jr., the chairman and chief executive of PurchasePro.com Inc., said he's been feeling the pinch of his creditors these days. Johnson told Dow Jones Newswires Tuesday that Credit Suisse Group's private banking arm forced him to sell part of his holdings in his company last month to pay back part of a $100 million line of credit backed by PurchasePro stock. Johnson had borrowed about $44 million on the credit line, but he said the balance is now less than $19 million. Shares of the business-to-business Internet company have been on a steady decline as of late, meaning the value of the collateral has fallen. The shares, however, did surge Tuesday on news that company had inked a deal with AOL Time Warner (AOL) and TMP Worldwide Inc.'s (TMPW) Monster.com unit to form an online job-recruiting marketplace. "First Boston forced me to sell some shares," Johnson said. "They enforced covenants that they had not in the past enforced." All told, Credit Suisse's private banking arm pressured Johnson into selling 1.45 million shares in mid-March, the executive said. That's almost 11% of the 14.385 million shares Johnson had owned. The bankers had held 12.3 million of those shares as collateral for Johnson's loan, Johnson said. Spokespeople for Credit Suisse's private banking unit could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon. In the past, a spokesman has not returned phone calls seeking comment on the line of credit. Johnson said he filed a form this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission outlining the changes in his stake in his company. Story 5329 =DJ PurchasePro CEO -2: To Sell Shares In Private Deals PurchasePro's Johnson said he didn't expect things to turn out this way. According to an automatic stock-selling plan Johnson announced on March 12, he didn't expect to sell his own shares in the company unless they rose to a minimum of $15. If they didn't, Johnson said he wouldn't sell. At the time, PurchasePro's stock was trading around $10 a share. Since then, shares have fallen on concerns about business-to-business Internet companies and on criticism from a couple of Wall Street analysts. The stock hit a 52 -week low of $2.45 Monday but was recently trading at $3.71, up 36% on the session, in reaction to Tuesday's partnership announcement. Johnson said he's arranged private transactions with some of PurchasePro's "earliest investors" to meet any future demands for more collateral from his bankers. The executive declined to identify the investors but said they did not include former Mirage Hotels Chief Executive Steve Wynn, who helped PurchasePro get off the ground. Under the original selling plan, Johnson expected to sell between 2,500 and 20,000 shares a day for 250 consecutive trading days beginning in April. The amount sold would depend on the stock price on any given day; the higher it went, the more shares would be sold. If the share price was above $50 during the entire selling period, Johnson would have been able to sell a total of 5 million shares, about one-third of stake in the company in early March. "I anticipate sticking with the plan; that's why I set it up," he said Tuesday. "I would have never sold outside the plan unless I was forced to." Story 5669 =DJ PurchasePro CEO -3: Used Loan Proceeds To Buy More Stock At the time of Johnson's announcement, observers speculated he might be under pressure to repay some or all of the approximately $44 million he had borrowed on the line of credit. Johnson himself had acknowledged that one of the goals of his selling plan was paying back some of his debt. The executive had used proceeds from his credit-line borrowings to add about $20 million worth of PurchasePro stock to his own holdings. He also said he gave $10 million of the proceeds to charity, including a $2 million gift to a Lexington, Ky., high school for the construction of a new basketball gym. Johnson was a basketball star in high school and college. Some of the proceeds went to pay for Johnson's own business expenses, including the lease on his corporate jet. Although some critics had questioned the size of the loan and the fact that it was backed by stock, Johnson said in a past interview with Dow Jones Newswires that he had distinguished himself from other dot-com executives by making good on a promise to refrain from selling stock until his company reached cash profitability. "Typically with Internet companies, the second the lockup is over, (executives) are selling shares," Johnson said. PurchasePro reported a net loss of $36.8 million, or 55 cents a diluted share, in the fourth quarter. However, excluding stock-based compensation expenses, non-cash sales, strategic marketing expenses, a gain from selling an investment and other items, the company said it would have posted earnings from operations of $7.6 million, or 11 cents a share. Johnson has touted that he hasn't received any salary for more than a year and hasn't received any stock options since PurchasePro went public.