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Technology Stocks : Internet Guru Discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: neverenough who wrote (765)	3/29/1999 8:32:00 PM
From: steve harmon - analyst	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4337

priceline.com ipo - i like priceline's customer empowerment motto From its April, 1997 launch through December 31, 1998 more than 1.9 million airline ticket offers came in, or what Priceline.com says was about $400 million in total consumer demand. After all that wiggling actual sales were 134,878 airline tickets or about $30.4 million in revenue or 86% of Priceline.com's entire revenue last year. The rest essentially came from its credit card marketing program. That means simply Priceline.com has made a name in the cheap seat air game but not other areas, in my opinion, despite attempts at hotels, cars and mortgages. With so much riding on airfares, the key drawback to that is simply this: how many travelers want to plan a trip based on speculative last-minute seating? Another weak point: Priceline.com has agreements with 18 airlines but, according to Priceline.com itself -- * do not require the airlines to make tickets available for any particular routes; * do not require the airlines to provide any specific quantity of airline tickets; * do not require the airlines to provide particular prices or levels of discount; * do not require the airlines to deal exclusively with us in the public sale of discounted airline tickets; and * generally, can be terminated upon relatively short notice. In spite of the drawbacks, Priceline generated $30 million from airline ticket sales with such loose agreements that favor the airline calling all the shots. But that's how hungry airlines are to fill the seats. Let's look at the numbers closer, because $91 million loss last year is an eye-opener. You could almost finance another Star Trek film on that amount, Shatner and Spock, and maybe even Picard.