Three more airlines board Priceline.com
Priceline.com adds United Airlines, US Airways and American Airlines to the major airlines participating in its "name your own price" service.
The new partners are UAL's United Airlines, US Airways and AMR's American Airlines. Existing partners include Delta Airlines, Continental Airlines, Northwest Airlines, Trans World Airlines and America West Airlines.
With the addition of these new carriers, Priceline's access to ticket inventory will increase by 94 percent, representing almost 90 percent of the total U.S. market share, the company said.
United officially begins writing tickets today through Priceline while American and US Airways will begin writing tickets within a few weeks.
The Stamford, Conn.-based company said today it has restructured its warrant agreements with the airlines to give all participating domestic carriers equity positions in closer relationship to their market share as it adds the three airlines to its service.
Yesterday, Delta Air Lines agreed to restructure its existing equity position in Priceline to level the playing field. The company sold 2.08 million shares of Priceline common stock to Priceline's founder and vice chairman Jay Walker and chief executive Richard Braddock for about $125 million.
Delta has agreed to exchange 6 million shares of Priceline common stock for 6 million shares of newly issued convertible preferred stock that may be converted into Priceline.com stock on a one-for-one basis. Delta will then hold about 8.5 million shares of Priceline common stock.
Delta will also receive new warrants to acquire 5.5 million shares of Priceline common stock at an exercise price equal to last Friday's closing price of Priceline shares.