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Priceline now worth $100B

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Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#81

Post by zjaffee »

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?

Priceline's value is no different than the value provided by Airbnb. They make the vast majority of their money being a middleman for hotels, not flights, and in turn have made it much easier for people to package everything together and get a better deal though the partnerships their partners already have with each other.

Additionally, comparing hotel pricing does put major pressure on prices, as most travelers know that they want to stay in the most reasonably priced hotel with a certain number of stars.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#82

Post by shimon »

hayksaakian wrote: post #46
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?

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.

Right. Another way of highlighting the absurdity of dismissing things like Priceline as non-assets is to look at the history of computing. Microsoft commoditized PC hardware, and became tremendously valuable selling the dominant OS. Google is doing the same thing with Android.

Is Windows or Android not an asset? Is it not the dominant asset in terms of value, even if manufacturing electronics at scale is larger in physical terms?

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#84

Post by gph »

gordon_freeman wrote: post #69
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?

On their wikipedia page, it states this: Total Assets: US$17.42 billion (2015) I wonder if Priceline group companies act as middlemen then how come the assets they own total to almost $18 billion? Someone can please explain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Priceline_Group

Cash is an asset. Undoubtedly they own offices/real estate in multiple locations. The corporate entity might even own some of it's own shares. There's probably a lot of mundane things that count as assets, I'm sure if you're super curious you could go lookup their assets on some SEC filing somewhere.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#85

Post by tiffanyh »

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?

And to compound this, Sabre - which nearly everyone in the industry uses to actually get there hotel/airline/car rental inventory from only has a $6B market cap.

https://www.google.com/finance?cid=55290057921840

Said another. The company technology that powers the whole travel industry is worth less than 10% of just Priceline.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#86

Post by ido »

dajohnson89 wrote: post #73
Fej wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing he doesn't really need the money at this point, especially given his age.

I really don't understand this line of thinking. Are old people incapable of spending money? Is what they chose to do with capital of less consequence? Even if they do have one foot in the grave, they have a right to legacy.

I think the point was that he was already a wealthy famous actor, and at 86 the difference between "many millions" and "many more millions" is not that material.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#87

Post by samfisher83 »

So many of the travel sites are owned by Priceline. Here is wikis list:

Booking.com Priceline.com Agoda.com Kayak.com Cheapflights Rentalcars.com momondo OpenTable

I am surprised they haven't bought Expedia or the other major sites.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#88

Post by trafficlight »

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?

I have a hard time with the idea that SpaceX sits somewhere around $12B and Tesla around $50B (with most people arguing even that is absurd).

So to value Priceline at $100B is insanity.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#89

Post by calbear81 »

throwaway91111 wrote: post #12
guelo wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've probably heard of Booking.com

Actually no. Why is it so popular? It seems to have fewer features than hipmunk.... Not to knock them, though, it's a hard problem to solve well from an interface and integrations perspective.

Why is this a throwaway account? Hipmunk is not an OTA, they are a metasearch site. When you find a price on Hipmunk, it's just a price from one of the OTAs like Expedia or Booking.com. Even when it's branded as a "Hipmunk" price - it's powered in the backend by one of the OTAs (white label).

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#90

Post by xadhominemx »

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?

Booking.com has spent a huge amount of money aggregating inventory at mom and pop hotels throughout the world, especially in Europe.
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