Reviews

"Good read...lots of great research. Boy, did those folks rake in the cash. Glad you pulled out those 300 shares when you did."
      Grant Johnson (5/04)

A shocking, enthralling, and aptly researched tale.
Midwest Book Review, Oregon, WI USA (April 12, 2004)
Priceline.com: A Layman's Guide To Manipulating The Media by [Denny] Hatch is the true story of a dot com entrepreneur's rising business, which reflected the boom and bust of internet-based marketing when its stock (bolstered by a $252 million advertising campaign and the endorsement of William Shatner), peaked at a high of $165 a share before the awful truth was revealed -- priceline.com had never made a profit and lost more than $1 billion. Legions of small investors lost money when the stock was reduced to pennies on the dollar, yet priceline.com's officers, directors, warrant holders, and privileged associates had gained more than $3 billion in insider trades. A shocking, enthralling, and aptly researched tale of the extreme uses and abuses to which masterful marketing and business public relations can be put, Priceline.com is a scathing and documented indictment of the kind of corporate corruption that came to be associated with the excesses of Wall Street during the dot.com "wonder years."

"We become better investors as we understand the many ways that companies try to manipulate the media. Denny Hatch has performed a real public service!"
      Mark Hulbert
      Hulbert's Financial Digest   

HotelMarketing/Newsweekly
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Priceline.com: A guide to manipulating the media

 November 12, 2003 -- After describing the early career of founder Jay Walker, Hatch recounts the masterful public relations that launched and sustained the name-your-own-price travel service, priceline.com.

In the course of two years, priceline.com issued 187 press releases (over 154,000 words) which -- running in tandem with a $252 million advertising campaign featuring William Shatner (Star Trek's Captain Kirk) -- resulted in over 16,000 stories plus hours of air time on TV and radio.

Citing the vast media coverage, the Wall Street underwriters and analysts issued "Buy" and "Accumulate" recommendations. The stock rocketed from the IPO price of $16 to a high of $165 - a "10 Bagger" in the parlance of lead underwriter Morgan Stanley.

For a brief period, 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. In a cover story, "Forbes" compared Walker to Thomas Alva Edison and shortly thereafter proclaimed him to be the 25th richest person in the world.

Eventually, the media and investors became disenchanted with the profitless priceline.com. At the end of 2000, the stock closed at $1.31.

Among the high-profile investors were billionaires Paul Allen, George Soros, John Malone, and Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. Contrarian Carl Icahn revealed to the media that he made a fortune selling priceline.com short.

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.

As well as capturing the heady euphoria of the Internet boom, Denny Hatch's "PRICELINE.COM: A Layman's Guide to Manipulating the Media" is also a textbook on the art of public relations when taking a company public.

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