|
Denny Hatch Associates News Release – 11/16/03 Priceline.com revealed to be a business PHILADELPHIA—November 16, 2003-- The riveting saga of American business buccaneers at their most creative, flamboyant, and outrageous is recounted by Denny Hatch in PRICELINE.COM: A Layman’s Guide to Manipulating the Media, to be published November 17, 2003 by PublishAmerica.* In 1999, a mesmerizing serial entrepreneur named Jay Walker, age 43, became the poster boy for the Internet revolution with his deeply flawed priceline.com, described by a former Walker associate as a “travel services flea market.” In the course of two years, priceline.com issued 187 press releases (over 154,000 words) which—running in tandem with the irresistible schtick of William (Star Trek’s Captain Kirk) Shatner in a $252 million advertising campaign—sent the media into a deep swoon, resulting in over 16,000 stories plus hours of air time on TV and radio. Citing the vast media coverage, the complicit Wall Street underwriters and analysts issued “Buy” and “Accumulate” recommendations. The stock rocketed from $16 to a high of $165. Priceline.com’s 35,000 square feet of sublet office space in Stamford, Connecticut, with its assemblage of little computers, exotic software, and 177 employees was briefly worth more than United, Northwest, and Continental airlines combined. Following a gaudy cover story, Forbes giddily proclaimed Walker the 25th richest person in the world. Eventually, the media became disenchanted with the profitless priceline.com. It had lost more than $1 billion (plus an additional $360 million lost in a bizarre, auction-based grocery business). At the end of 2000, the stock closed at $1.31, devastating many small investors. Meanwhile, priceline.com’s officers, directors, warrant holders, and privileged insiders took home more than $3 billion in perfectly legal insider trades. (For a record of the significant insider transactions, visit www.PricelineAndTheMedia.com). On June 16, 2003 a 1-for-6 reverse stock split sextupled the price of the stock. For historical comparison, the current price of priceline.com stock must be divided by 6. Denny Hatch’s PRICELINE.COM: A Layman’s Guide to Manipulating the Media is a rousing tale of corporate high jinks that not only captures the heady euphoria of the Internet boom, but is also a textbook on how to take a company public and snooker the media. *331pp, trade paperback, 6” x 9”; ISBN# 0-4137-0213-9; $24.95 Contact: -30- |