Priceline.com is a high profile US site with a patent for its reverse-auction business model (where buyers say what they want and how much they will pay; the sellers then compete for the business).
The share price of the company has plummeted by 79% in less than one month. Its value is now 97% less than it was shortly after flotation in April 1999.
The closure of Webhouse Club, a grocery and petrol site that was a licensee of Priceline.com, was announced last week. The announcement worsened the fall in the value of Priceline.com. Jay Walker, the founder and Vice Chairman of Priceline.com, put $125 million of his own money into Webhouse Club. His shareholding in the Priceline.com has fallen from a value of $1.7 billion to $242 million in just three weeks.