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

To: coachbobknight who wrote (1331)	5/16/1999 1:54:00 AM
From: Gerald Walls	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2743

Here are some sites with similar services to priceline.com. How valid can priceline.com's patents be with this prior art? travelbids.com -- travelbids.com youpriceit.com

To: coachbobknight who wrote (1331)	5/16/1999 5:16:00 AM
From: B. A. Marlow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2743

Will take your word for the sell-side "cat fight," coach. Will take your word for the secondary, too, but not sure how imminent it is, or what PCLN plans to do with the dough. It raised about $160mm (gross) in the IPO and, considering what it's doing, appears to have a manageable "burn" rate. If PCLN raises additional capital, it's likely to be invested in aggressive expansion. Hey, many investors have learned not to take seriously the transparent antics of sell-siders, but that's not the point. If the investment banks hype this particular stock to drum up business, they're just "right" for the wrong reason. Happens all the time. But they're still *right, and they will* move the stock. So bring on the cat fight. Maybe the banks can use the sharp deal they negotiate (to the benefit of PCLN) as evidence in their current "dispute" with the DOJ--that, perish the thought, there's no pricing collusion in the securities business... Meanwhile, add another one. On May 13th, PCLN coverage was initiated at Sunlogic Securities with a "Buy." BAM *** Some PCLN highlights for those who haven't seen them: Ownership: Founder Jay Walker owns 62.6 million shares; former Citicorp president Richard Braddock, Priceline's Chair/CEO since August, owns 14.6 million; and former Time Warner (NYSE:TWX - news) co-CEO Nicholas Nicholas, Jr., a Priceline director since July, owns 3.9 million shares. And, oh yeah, Priceline pitchman William Shatner (AKA Capt. James T. Kirk) reportedly owns about 125,000 shares. Other winners include billionaire Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures, with 9.4 million shares, and venture capital firm General Atlantic Partners, with 26.3 million shares. fnews.yahoo.com Quarterly Results and Milestones: Operating loss for the first quarter of 1999 was $17.6 million, compared to an operating loss of $73.9 million for the fourth quarter of 1998. Net loss for the first quarter of 1999 was $17.2 million, a 77% decrease from the net loss of $73.7 million for the fourth quarter of 1998. Excluding in both periods the effect of non-cash supplier warrant charges, the net loss for the first quarter of 1999 was $16.8 million, compared to a net loss of $12.7 million for the fourth quarter of 1998. First quarter gross profit was $5.4 million compared to a loss of $0.7 million in the 1998 fourth quarter. Excluding in both periods the effect of non-cash supplier warrant charges, gross profit for the first quarter of 1999 was $5.7 million, an increase of 151% when compared to $2.3 million of gross profit for the fourth quarter of 1998. In total, priceline.com collected approximately 940,000 guaranteed offers for its various products and services in the first quarter, a 98% increase over the number of guaranteed offers collected during the fourth quarter of 1998. Approximately 531,000 new customers used priceline.com during the first quarter of 1999 based upon the number of unique credit card accounts submitted during the period. This represented an 86% increase over the 286,000 unique credit card submissions during the fourth quarter of 1998. Approximately 43% of all priceline.com offers collected during the first quarter came from repeat customers. The number of offers that priceline.com accepts is affected by a variety of factors, including the number of reasonable offers received and the level of available inventory. Priceline.com's brand awareness continues to grow among the U.S. adult population. Over the past nine months, Opinion Research Corporation International of Princeton, NJ, sponsored by priceline.com, conducted brand awareness and comparative word-of-mouth studies of some of the leading e-commerce brands. These independent studies rank priceline.com as the second best-known e-commerce brand, recognized by nearly half the U.S. adult population, or 91.1 million adults. Among adults who have yet to use the Internet, priceline.com is the most-recognized e-commerce brand. Opinion Research also found that the company benefits from strong consumer word-of-mouth referrals. Approximately 25 million people have recommended priceline.com to a friend or relative and 98% of priceline.com's customers report that they would recommend the service to others. The research revealed that the average priceline.com customer who successfully names his price for a product or service tells 17.8 other people about his experience. Opinion Research also found that successful priceline.com customers say they will use priceline.com for 2.4 trips in the coming year. biz.yahoo.com