rent a car in italy While the shift to hotels makes its phase-out of Shatner s Negotiator character

As a Star Trek fan and long-time admirer of actor William Shatner, part of me is smirking at Priceline.com s (NasdaqGS: PCLN) $117.48 price decline (-17.3%) on Wednesday (Aug. 8 th ). Investors millenium hotel cincinnati have given a very big thumbs down in reaction to the company s second-quarter financial report , which beat analyst estimates millenium hotel cincinnati for earnings per share but missed revenue estimates. Even worse, both earnings and revenue guidance for the third quarter is much lower than analysts were projecting:
Third-quarter EPS growth is projected at 17% (at the midpoint), less than half the 43% year-over-year growth in the second quarter, and Q3 revenue growth is projected to run only in the 9% to 15% range, which is a substantial slowdown rent a car in italy from Q2 s 20.3%.
As I wrote in Holy Fossil! rent a car in italy , the European debt crisis has not crimped rent a car in italy the sales of luxury retail goods as much as feared, which suggests Europe may be stabilizing. But here comes Priceline.com blaming its revenue shortfall on the European debt crisis:
Guidance reflects an assumption that economic conditions in Europe will further deteriorate. The Company believes that concerns related to sovereign debt and the viability rent a car in italy of the Euro have negatively impacted historical operating millenium hotel cincinnati results millenium hotel cincinnati and are likely to impact future rent a car in italy results . Given the uncertainty surrounding worldwide economic millenium hotel cincinnati conditions, rent a car in italy particularly in Europe where much of the Company s business is concentrated, the Company believes the variability around its guidance is greater than is usually the case.
I m calling the stock s 17.3% plunge The Curse of Captain James T. Kirk. Shatner was unceremoniously fired earlier this year after having been the brand image of Priceline for 14 years. Shatner s The Negotiator character played rent a car in italy up the fact that customers no longer rent a car in italy had to take or leave a travel company s quoted rent a car in italy price for an airline ticket, millenium hotel cincinnati hotel room, or car rental. Instead, using Priceline millenium hotel cincinnati s bidding system, customers millenium hotel cincinnati could name their own price and see whether any of Priceline s travel partners would accept their low-ball bid. Half-price bids were routinely achievable, but the customer had to bid without knowing rent a car in italy exactly which hotel they were dealing with (only whether it was a 3-star or 4-star hotel), or what time of day they would be flying.
millenium hotel cincinnati Personally, rent a car in italy I always found this secrecy and uncertainty maddening and didn t use the bidding service as a result. But many cheapskates didn t mind the uncertainty millenium hotel cincinnati if they could save half price or more. No doubt about it, Priceline s stock has been an extraordinary performer millenium hotel cincinnati over the past decade, outperforming the S P 500 by 5,280 percentage points!
So why, given this success, did Priceline decide to fire Shatner in a Super Bowl commercial where he dies in a bus-explosion fireball ? The reason rent a car in italy is that Priceline is steering away from Name Your Own Price in order adopt a fixed-price rent a car in italy Express Deals concept similar rent a car in italy to the daily deals offered millenium hotel cincinnati by Groupon (NasdaqGS: GRPN). millenium hotel cincinnati The Name Your Own Price gimmick works best with airline flights, but airlines have reduced spare capacity to the lowest level in a decade , so they no longer need to offer half-price deals to fill up the fewer planes currently rent a car in italy in the air. Whereas customers consider airplanes to be commodities, they are much more particular rent a car in italy about hotels and are less willing to bid on an unnamed property in an unknown location. Consequently, with Priceline s acquisition-led growth concentrating on the hotel business, rent a car in italy the company no longer benefits from the old bidding model.
rent a car in italy While the shift to hotels makes its phase-out of Shatner s Negotiator character somewhat understandable, there has been a heavy public relations rent a car in italy cost. As one commentator put it back in January when the bus-explosion fireball commercial aired:
This is a huge mistake. They ve invested millions in developing this brand, and now they are moving in a new direction. rent a car in italy How many times have companies come to this decision and destroyed their brand recognition with their target audience? Even when Geico created that stupid caveman character, they still stuck with that little green Gekko because their audience knew, and liked him.
People loved the William Shatner character, and they automatically associated rent a car in italy him with Priceline s brand and vice-versa. I have no doubt that their market share value will significantly decline over time.
The fact that most of Priceline s growth has occurred through its Europe-based acquisitions hasn t helped either 60% of its hotel revenues now come from recessionary Europe, which is not the place you want to be right now.
Providing evidence that Priceline s problems are company-specific and not indicative of a global travel slowdown is the fact that U.S.-based online travel competitor Expedia (NasdaqGS: EXPE) gapped up 20% after reporting millenium hotel cincinnati better-than-expected second-quarter results and announcing an increase in its dividend.
My takeaway : Even after today s price decline, the stock is richly valued at 26 times trailing earnings, which cannot rent a car in italy be supported by Priceline s newly-lowered growth millenium hotel cincinnati rates and suggest an even lower stock price in the weeks ahead. If you want to live long and prosper, don t mess with Captain Kirk.
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I totally agree with your take on William Shatner s former value to the company. His comic timing in the commercials was terrific. The man is a pro with 50 plus years of acting/show business experience. People with that much charisma are hard to replace.
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Jim Fink is the senior online editor millenium hotel cincinnati for Investing Daily and is also chief investment strategist millenium hotel cincinnati for Options for Income . He has traded options for more than 20 years and generated personal profits of ...
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