Priceline.com Names Maryann Keller President of Its Automotive Services Unit
1 July 1999
Priceline.com Names Maryann Keller President of Its Automotive Services Unit
STAMFORD, Conn.--July 1, 1999--Priceline.com , the patented Internet pricing system where consumers name their own price for goods and services, announced today the appointment of Maryann Keller to the new position of president of priceline.com's Automotive Services unit.Ms. Keller reports to Daniel H. Schulman, president of priceline.com, who recently joined the company after serving as president of AT&T's $22 billion Consumer Markets division. Keller, regarded by many as one of the automotive industry's most knowledgeable outside experts, will use her extensive knowledge of the industry to build the management team for priceline.com's Automotive Services unit and establish key contacts in the automotive industry to facilitate the planned national roll-out of priceline.com's new car buying service later this year. The service is currently available in the New York metro area on a test basis.
Keller brings to priceline.com 28 years' experience as an auto industry analyst, advisor, author and reporter. She joins priceline.com from Furman Selz (now part of ING Barings), where she served as the firm's lead auto analyst since 1986. Prior to Furman Selz, she was portfolio manager with Vilas-Fischer Associates from 1983 to 1986, and served as the lead automotive analyst with Paine Webber from 1980 to 1983. She was Kidder Peabody's automotive analyst from 1972 to 1980. Keller was named the industry's top auto analyst six times during her career.
She is the author of two books - "Rude Awakening: The Decline, Fall and Struggle to Recover at General Motors," William Morrow, 1989, for which she was awarded the Eccles Prize by Columbia University in 1990 for excellence in economic writing; and "Collision: GM, Toyota and Volkswagen and the Race to Own the 21st Century," Doubleday, 1993.
Keller also contributes a monthly column to Automotive Industries Magazine for the past ten years, and was previously a regular contributor to Motor Trend.
"Maryann Keller is in the unique position to leverage her extensive experience and contacts to build a world-class team and strategy for priceline.com's Automotive Services unit," said Richard S. Braddock, chairman and CEO of priceline.com. "In particular, she can reach out to key people within the automotive industry to establish the alliances necessary to rapidly scale and deploy our new car buying service to the national level."
During her career, Keller has been on the forefront of identifying change within the automotive industry. While with Kidder Peabody in the 1970s, she was the first analyst to identify and examine the threat posed by the Japanese to American automakers. In the 1980s with Furman Selz, she became convinced that public ownership for auto dealers was possible and wrote extensively on the subject. She was involved in one of the first acquisitions of a dealer group by a financial investor, and was involved in two of the initial three IPOs of car dealers.
"I'm convinced that priceline.com's new-car buying service is revolutionizing the automotive industry," said Keller. "It leverages the advantages of the Internet by removing all the negatives and haggling associated with buying a new car. I see this as a great service because of its empowering benefit to consumers, and I look forward to building the team and momentum as we expand the service onto the national stage."
Keller adds: "Priceline.com's new car service is also great for dealers. Other Internet car services only deliver leads, where priceline.com delivers actual customers who are ready to buy cars."
Keller holds an MBA from Bernard Baruch School of CUNY, and a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Rutgers University.
Priceline.com's new-car buying service, currently limited to the New York metro area, enables consumers to name the exact car or truck they want, the price they want to pay, and how far they are willing to travel to take delivery of the vehicle. Without revealing the buyer's name, priceline.com submits offers to factory authorized dealers in the specified area to try to locate a dealer willing to sell the car at the customer's price.
About priceline.com
Priceline.com is the patented Internet pricing system that enables consumers to name their own price for a variety of goods and services. Priceline.com collects consumer demand and then presents it to sellers who can fill as much of that demand as they want at price points determined by buyers. Priceline.com is one of the Internet's truly "virtual" businesses. By taking consumer offers directly to sellers, the company doesn't hold or handle any inventory, and thus has no need for brick-and-mortar warehouses.
Priceline.com has three business units: a travel services unit that offers leisure airline tickets and hotel rooms, a personal finance unit that offers home mortgages, refinancing and home equity loans, and an automotive services unit that offers new cars in the New York metro area on a test basis.
This press release may contain forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe-harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Expressions of future goals and similar expressions including, without limitation, "may," "will," "believes," "should," "could," "hope," "expects," "expected," "does not currently expect," "anticipates," "predicts," "potential," and "forecast," reflecting something other than historical fact are intended to identify forward-looking statements, but are not the exclusive means of identifying such statements. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, including the timely development and market acceptance of products and technologies and other factors described in the Company's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The actual results may differ materially from any forward-looking statements due to such risks and uncertainties. The Company undertakes no obligations to revise or update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this release.