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Technology Stocks : Booking Holdings (formerly Priceline) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Victor Lazlo who wrote (2506)	12/16/2000 7:12:16 PM
From: H James Morris	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2743

>Dec. 12, 2000 — William Shatner, who has spent much of his post-Star Trek time hamming it up as celebrity spokesinger for Priceline.com, may be hanging up his microphone. Apparently displeased over Priceline's precipitous freefall on Wall Street, the erstwhile Captain Kirk has decided to stop appearing in commercials for the company, according to the New York Post. Shatner, who boldly went where no star had gone before by becoming the first celeb spokesman for a dot-com, signed up with the name-your-price Website in March 1998. In lieu of a paycheck, Priceline gave the actor 125,000 shares of pre-IPO stock. Shatner's portfolio was worth a whopping $20.6 million when Priceline's stock peaked at $165 per share, but has since dwindled to a mere $202,500 as the company's stock is hovering around $2. In addition to Shatner's declining net worth, the Post cites the following evidence for a Shatner-Priceline split: Shatner's voice is MIA from Priceline's recent crop of TV ads, which merely shows a snapshot of the actor accompanied by spacey music. Shatner does not list his spokesman gig with the dot-com on his new list of credits on his official Website, WilliamShatner.com. (However, there is a link to Priceline on the index page.) Shatner wasn't available for comment Tuesday--he's currently on location in Arizona prepping for Groom Lake, a new sci-fi movie which he's writing and directing. However, his publicist, Robin Guido, disputed any notion that the Star Trek star is retiring from his latest adventure. "His contract's extended through fall 2001. He has not split from the company," said Guido. And while a Priceline rep confirms Shatner is signed through 2001, there is no definitive word on whether he will make any more of his trademark campy commercials. The actor has done 24 ads for Priceline, many of which feature him in lounge-lizard mode offering his, um, unique interpretations of such tunes as "Age of Aquarius," "Bust a Move" and "Convoy" accompanied by alternarockers like Ben Folds. If Shatner balks on shooting more ads, Priceline might use him elsewhere--meet and greets, trade shows, etc.--in addition to re-airing old commercials and outtakes. Lucky for Captain Kirk he cashed in some of those options before the e-commerce meltdown. Earlier this year Shatner exercised 35,000 options at about $95 a share, earning more than $3 million. And if the Shatner thing doesn't pan out, we hear Scotty's available.