Priceline.com Names Michael J. Seergy, Former Top U.S. Executive of Nissan North America, as Vice President and General Manager of its Automotive Services Unit
18 August 1999
Priceline.com Names Michael J. Seergy, Former Top U.S. Executive of Nissan North America, as Vice President and General Manager of its Automotive Services Unit
STAMFORD, Conn.--Aug. 18, 1999--Priceline.com announced today the appointment of Michael J. Seergy to the newly created position of Vice President and General Manager for priceline.com's Automotive Services unit. Mr. Seergy was most recently Vice President and General Manager of Nissan North America, Inc.Mr. Seergy will report to Maryann Keller, President of priceline.com's Automotive Services group. He will be responsible for all day-to-day operations of the group, including sales, marketing and dealership relationships.
Mr. Seergy comes to priceline.com after more than nine years with Nissan, where he was one of the company's top executives from April 1990 to June 1999. From February 1998 to June 1999, he served as Vice President and General Manager of Nissan North America, where he was in charge of directing marketing campaigns for new products, revising the product mix and production schedules, and improving dealer and employee relations. He also served as Northeast Regional Vice President of Nissan Motor Corporation U.S.A. from October 1991 to January 1998, and Regional General Manager for Nissan's western region Infiniti division from April 1990 to October 1991. Prior to Nissan, he was President of Princeton Automotive Management from July 1988 to April 1990. Mr. Seergy also spent eight years at Ford Division of Ford Motor Company.
"With Michael joining Maryann, we have in place seasoned executives from the automotive industry who have the knowledge, experience and relationships necessary to roll out our new car service on a national level, which represents a promising and distinctive offering for priceline.com" said Richard S. Braddock, Chairman and CEO of priceline.com. Priceline.com's new car service is currently available in the New York metro area, which includes parts of New York, Connecticut and New Jersey and in the Tampa/St. Petersburg market.
"Michael's experience building and growing large businesses is important as priceline.com's new car buying service continues to expand," said Ms. Keller. "In particular, his understanding of dealership needs and his strong relationships with dealers will be key as we move our new car buying service into additional markets."
"I cannot think of a more exciting place to be or organization to join," said Mr. Seergy. "I'm looking forward to leveraging my years of experience in automotive manufacturing and working with dealers nationwide to help accelerate priceline.com's rollout of its new vehicle buying service."
Priceline.com's new vehicle buying service 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 Internet pricing system that enables consumers to achieve significant savings by naming their own price for goods and services. Priceline.com takes consumer offers and then presents them to sellers who can fill as much of that guaranteed demand as they wish at price points determined by buyers.
Priceline.com's "virtual" business model allows for rapid scaling using the Internet. Because the Company electronically collects consumer demand, it can fill this demand directly with sellers or by using proprietary databases. Priceline.com does not maintain or warehouse inventories in any of its product lines.
Priceline.com is currently selling multiple services to its customers across three distinct product categories: a travel service that offers leisure airline tickets and hotel rooms, a personal finance service that offers home mortgages, refinancing and home equity loans, and an automotive service unit.
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