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Priceline now worth $100B

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Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#51

Post by marcgcombi »

wheaties wrote: post #16

This 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?

Is the financial industry an apt analogy? Wall Street "holds" other peoples assets and hypothecates and re-hypothecates those assets, bleeds their depositors and provide (generally) poor ROI to the depositor. Hail to the people that add no value! You too Priceline. LOL

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#52

Post by smcg »

lobster_johnson wrote: post #13
jahnu wrote: post #3

As a European I find it amazing I hadn't even heard of this $100bn company till now.

Aside from Booking.com, they also own KAYAK, Cheapflights, Rentalcars.com and Open Table (the restaurant booking app).

I was about to say "I don't know anyone who uses Priceline" but I didn't know they owned all those other companies and sites as well.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#53

Post by WestCoastJustin »

rayiner wrote: post #26
wheaties wrote: post #16

This 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?

The Internet has facilitated the age of the middleman. Owning stuff is expensive. It's much easier to leverage network effects to tie consumers to producers. Why make or build anything when you can control the market by controlling the app at the end of the distribution chain?

It also allows for mom-and-pop shops selling direct to end users around the world. I used to run a video education business and that was pretty game changing when you have access to the world market via the internet. The key for priceline seems to the aggregation function that makes it a worthwhile middleman.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#54

Post by bcherny »

wheaties wrote: post #16

This 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?

Yuval Noah Harari would call this a "shared hallucination".

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#55

Post by majani »

wheaties wrote: post #16

This 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?

The tech middlemen are simply way more efficient than their brick and mortar counterparts. Surely this argument was put to rest years ago.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#56

Post by mandeepj »

pilom wrote: post #42
mandeepj wrote: post #14

They 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.

To make it affordable and easier for more people to buy their stock. This is always the biggest reason for split. Will an average person invest in a stock which is trading at $2k per share? Nope.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#57

Post by nerdponx »

wheaties wrote: post #16

This 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?

Of course Priceline has assets:

- Software

- Computing infrastructure

- Domain expertise

- Deals and relationships with business partners

- Mountains of proprietary data, including historical pricing/availability and user behavior.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#58

Post by animex »

nerdponx wrote: post #57
wheaties wrote: post #16

This 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?

Of course Priceline has assets: - Software - Computing infrastructure - Domain expertise - Deals and relationships with business partners - Mountains of proprietary data, including historical pricing/availability and user behavior.

You forgot Brand and a whole wack of Users!

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#59

Post by dtech »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #11
jdross wrote: post #6

Earlier 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 ginormous, at least everyone I know in the Netherlands using it to book hotels.
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