As a European I find it amazing I hadn't even heard of this $100bn company till now.
Booking.com is part of Priceline group
Ah yes. Even used it a fair bit. It's pretty good. Didn't know that was the same company.
Priceline now worth $100B
41–50 of 232 posts
Re: Priceline now worth $100B
#42They should have split the stock way back like apple and google. Splitting have its own benefits. It would have added more value to their stock price.
Why? My understanding was that the only reason Apple and Google did stock splits was that they wanted to get onto the Dow Jones Industrial Average which is (stupidly) price weighted and not market cap weighted so without the split, they would have been a much larger portion of the Dow.
Re: Priceline now worth $100B
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Booking.com is part of Priceline group
UK here, heard of it, never heard anyone mention it nor seen anything of it in traditional media however. Presumably they're a USA only company?
Booking.com is very popular in Europe. In fact for years it was pretty much only in Europe. It was founded in the Netherlands and stuck to the continental European market initially. Now it's global, but Europe is still one of its bigger markets, and it's still headquartered in Amsterdam, though now as a subsidiary of an American company.
Re: Priceline now worth $100B
#44This is stupid. Really. Here we are in a world where the companies that own the assets (you know, the things that cost a lot of money) are worth less than the things that don't own anything. This doesn't seem "right" or "fair" in the sense that Priceline should be a middleman, unable to exercise any or all pricing power because it does not control the assets producing the revenue. I wonder how long this can last?
Priceline doesn't have pricing power, they are just reaping the rewards of their branding and whatnot. There may also be some value for the consumer in that Priceline can consolidate their travel plans for flights/hotel/rental car in one place. However, I find I get better service when I transact directly with the vendor, whether it be hotels, airlines, or rental car agencies.
If you want the lowest prices on all the big hotel chains (Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Choice, Wyndham, Best Western, etc), then use www.roomkey.com I have no idea why they don't advertise it, but their loyalty pricing (you have to be a free member of their rewards system), and in exchange for the discount you get, the hotel doesn't have to pay commissions to Priceline/Expedia/other travel agents.
Re: Priceline now worth $100B
#45This is stupid. Really. Here we are in a world where the companies that own the assets (you know, the things that cost a lot of money) are worth less than the things that don't own anything. This doesn't seem "right" or "fair" in the sense that Priceline should be a middleman, unable to exercise any or all pricing power because it does not control the assets producing the revenue. I wonder how long this can last?
[deleted]
Re: Priceline now worth $100B
#46This is stupid. Really. Here we are in a world where the companies that own the assets (you know, the things that cost a lot of money) are worth less than the things that don't own anything. This doesn't seem "right" or "fair" in the sense that Priceline should be a middleman, unable to exercise any or all pricing power because it does not control the assets producing the revenue. I wonder how long this can last?
If you work backwards from what generates revenue (purchases) in the travel industry you'll find that marketing drives decision making more than the underlying airplanes, trains etc.
Physical assets are a known quantity for better and for worse. They intrinsically depreciate. On the other hand, Brands grow over time from word of mouth and other marketing, so long as their final product is at least average.
Re: Priceline now worth $100B
#47Re: Priceline now worth $100B
#48This is stupid. Really. Here we are in a world where the companies that own the assets (you know, the things that cost a lot of money) are worth less than the things that don't own anything. This doesn't seem "right" or "fair" in the sense that Priceline should be a middleman, unable to exercise any or all pricing power because it does not control the assets producing the revenue. I wonder how long this can last?
they own something more valuable than "things." they own the customer
Re: Priceline now worth $100B
#49William Shatner asked for stock instead of cash when he started advertising for Priceline.com twenty years ago. His shares are now worth $4 billion.
He sold his shares at a very low price a long time ago
So he "only" made $600m. Although apparently the numbers are disputed. Heck, even 1/10th of that is a tidy sum.
Re: Priceline now worth $100B
#50This is stupid. Really. Here we are in a world where the companies that own the assets (you know, the things that cost a lot of money) are worth less than the things that don't own anything. This doesn't seem "right" or "fair" in the sense that Priceline should be a middleman, unable to exercise any or all pricing power because it does not control the assets producing the revenue. I wonder how long this can last?
Owning stuff comes with actual upkeep costs.
Priceline and others own mindshare and access to a community, and its infrastructure is cheap. Marketplaces and money transmitters are valuable, but eventually will be decentralized as you can see with bitcoin.
Apple and Microsoft build actual stuff. But Tencent, Alibaba, etc. are markeplaces and shipping.