Well, at least he hasn't taken off for Europe...yet. Sounds like he should have consulted his HR department. Walker has certainly become the poster boy for the dot com implosion, though I would characterize him more as an Icarus than a crook. Pride cometh before...etc.
Interesting comments from the WSJ earlier this week:
Pricelinecom's Airline Business Could Bring Profits, WSJ Says
Norwalk, Connecticut, Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Priceline.com Inc.'s Internet airline-ticket business has the potential to be lucrative if the company dedicates profits to its popular products, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The two-year-old company has used profit from its airline ticket business to buy expensive computer systems, create high- priced advertising campaigns and to expand its other units, such as its failed gasoline and grocery venture, the paper said.
While a travel agent earns about $10 in commissions on each $215 plane ticket sold, Priceline.com can earn about $35 in profit and fees for the same ticket. Priceline.com's profit before overhead and other expenses is 9 percent to 12 percent, while a travel agent's commission is about 5 percent, the paper said.
The company had about $131 million in cash remaining in the third quarter, enough to last at least a year, and has trimmed its workforce to 395 from 535. However, it expects fourth-quarter sales to drop below third-quarter levels and attributes the decline to bad publicity in October about its finances and traffic it lost when it closed some sites, the paper said.
(WSJ 1/25)
Jan/25/2001 7:53 ET |
