Priceline.com Announces 100% Expansion Of Its Name Your Own Price New Car Service
12 January 2000
Priceline.com Announces 100% Expansion Of Its Name Your Own Price New Car Service
NORWALK, Conn.--January 12, 2000--priceline.com's Name Your Own Price(TM) service to get the
exact car or truck they want through a local dealership
-- Service expands to cover 13 new states: Alabama, Arizona,
Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, North
Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Washington and
Wyoming, as well as Washington, D.C.
-- Now available in 26 states, Company expects to complete
national rollout plans in first half of 2000
Priceline.com , the Internet pricing system, today announced the single largest market expansion in the history of its Name-Your-Own-Price new car buying service. Priceline.com said that it doubled to 26 the number of states in which its new car service is now available. The 13 new states announced today are Alabama, Arizona, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Washington and Wyoming, as well as Washington, D.C. The Company also said that it expects to complete its national rollout plans in the first half of this year.
Priceline.com's new car service already was available in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont.
"Priceline.com's anonymous, consumer-friendly approach is hands-down the best way in America to buy a car for consumers who aren't comfortable with the traditional on-the-lot negotiation process or don't want the high-pressure telephone haggling offered by other Internet car services that merely deliver consumers to salespersons," said Maryann Keller, president of priceline.com's Automotive Services group. "Based on the enthusiastic response we've received in other markets, we're pleased to expand our service to cover these additional states."
Priceline.com is also conducting a Florida market test with Ford Motor Company. Florida consumers who visit the Ford Web site can see all the Ford models and then use priceline.com's Name Your Own Price(TM) service to make a purchase offer for the car of their choice. That offer is then distributed through priceline.com to Ford dealerships in the consumer's area.
Priceline.com is unique among Internet car buying services in that it enables consumers to research a car or truck and anonymously fill in the price they want to pay for the vehicle. Priceline.com distributes the offer to all factory authorized dealerships in the geographic area specified by the buyer.
Because the offers are made anonymously, no car salesman calls to haggle or negotiate a different price. The first dealership to accept the consumer's price gets to sell the car. To help consumers determine their price, priceline.com displays manufacturer suggested prices and dealer invoice prices (what the dealer pays) for all vehicles.
About priceline.com
Priceline.com is the patented Internet pricing system that enables consumers to achieve significant savings 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's business system currently sells multiple services to customers across three product categories: Priceline Travel Services that offer leisure airline tickets, hotel rooms and rental cars; Priceline Personal Finance Services that offer home mortgages, refinancing and home equity loans, Priceline Automotive Services that lets consumers make purchase offers for new cars.
Priceline.com also licensed its business model to a privately owned company, Priceline WebHouse Club, which offers Name-Your-Own-Price(TM) retail goods, beginning with groceries in the New York metro and greater Philadelphia areas. In return for the WebHouse Club license, priceline.com has received warrants allowing it to purchase a majority equity stake in the WebHouse Club under certain contingent conditions. Prior to the exercise of those warrants, the results of WebHouse Club operations will not be included in priceline.com's financial statements.
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 filings 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.