• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch

2

Mark Zuckerberg feeds his cows macadamia nuts and beer to create the 'highest-quality beef in the world' on his $300 million estate in Hawaii

3

Current price of oil as of July 2, 2026

1

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch

2

Mark Zuckerberg feeds his cows macadamia nuts and beer to create the 'highest-quality beef in the world' on his $300 million estate in Hawaii

3

Current price of oil as of July 2, 2026
Priceline

Can Priceline extend its impressive run?

By
Kevin Kelleher
Kevin Kelleher
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Kevin Kelleher
Kevin Kelleher
Down Arrow Button Icon
December 19, 2013, 8:35 PM ET
Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg Finance LP
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Which of the following five veterans of technology has seen its stock price rise the most over the past 10 years: a) Apple, b) Google, c) Amazon, d) Netflix, or e) Priceline.com?

If you guessed one of the first four, you’re off by a wide margin. Priceline (PCLN) has risen more than 67 times over since December 2003. Apple (AAPL) is a distant second, having risen by a factor of 52. Netflix (NFLX), Google (GOOG), and Amazon (AMZN) have risen 1470%, 890% and 663%, respectively.

All are returns that would please any long-term shareholder (the Nasdaq Composite is up a mere 106%) but nothing like the run Priceline has seen. And Priceline has done it with much less fanfare and headlines than the others. The company has quietly become the $60 billion giant in travel. It calls itself the “Amazon of accomodations” but as an investment, Priceline has surpassed Amazon.

Much of Priceline’s good fortune over the past decade is due to the management of Jeffrey Boyd, who was named Priceline’s CEO in 2002, after the stock had plummeted from $974 a share to $7 a share. The company became a poster child for the dotcom crash, but Boyd restructured the company into a global travel-booking site, largely through the shrewd, $135 million purchase of Booking.com in 2005.

Booking.com and other acquisitions like ActiveHotels.com gave Priceline a strong footing in the European hotel-booking sector. The 2007 purchase of Agoda.com expanded its reach into Asia. Vacationers seeking out bargain hotel deals during lean economic years have propelled Priceline’s recent growth. Last year, not a great one for most European economies, saw hotel bookings in the region rise 46%.

As a result, Priceline has become a U.S.-based company relying primarily on overseas markets. In the first nine months of 2013, only 15% of its revenue came from the U.S. Revenue from the U.S., primarily airline tickets and hotels, rose 12%, compared with a 43% rise in international revenue. Booking.com books a million rooms a day, yet most Americans are still unfamiliar with the site.

Still, Booking.com’s growth has extended Priceline’s remarkable rally through this year. Priceline’s stock is up 89% in 2013, nearly tripling the Nasdaq Composite’s 33% rally. That’s comparable with other online-travel companies like TripAdvisor (TRIP), which is up 95% this year, and recent web IPOs like Facebook (FB), up 102%, and LinkedIn (LNKD), up 99%. And it’s much stronger than, say, Amazon’s 55% gain.

That rally, however, has stalled in recent weeks after Boyd told investors that he’s stepping down as CEO, although he will remain as chairman. The CEO job went to Darren Huston, who joined Priceline in 2011 as the head of Booking.com. After rising as high as $1,198 in late November, Priceline’s stock has moved sideways, closing at $1,160 on Wednesday.

Investors seem to be pausing to assess whether Huston can fill Boyd’s shoes. Before joining Priceline, Huston worked as a marketing executive at McKinsey & Co.; an executive at Starbucks, where he rolled out Wi-Fi in cafes as well as the Starbucks Card; and most recently Microsoft, where was a corporate vice president in the company’s consumer and online division.

Huston’s record of leadership inside Priceline is brief but promising. Booking.com’s gross booking has consistently grown by a 40% to 43% annual rate under his management. He has taken a larger role in international partnerships such as the one between Booking.com and China’s Ctrip (CTRP). And he is taking control of Priceline as the company is expanding its hotel-booking business in the U.S.

This year, Priceline moved to increase Booking.com’s presence in the U.S. market, which could cause the company’s strongest subsidiary to compete with its parent’s longtime domestic operations. That move came after JD Power ranked Booking.com as No. 1 in a survey of customer satisfaction.

In interviews this year, Huston has said Booking.com’s “pay-when-you-stay” and cancellation policies give it an edge over rivals. But Booking.com’s visibility has been muted this year, despite the booking.yeah marketing campaign from Weiden+Kennedy. For American travelers, Priceline’s brand remains stronger, so much so that the company returned William Shatner’s Negotiator character back from the dead.

Huston has sizable shoes to fill as Priceline’s CEO. The pieces are in place for him to extend Boyd’s record of accomplishments, but the sense of uncertainty among investors is justified. Much like Huston’s former company Microsoft, when Bill Gates handed the reins to Steve Ballmer, Priceline is changing the guard after an impressive run.

The stock’s rally over the past decade is an unusually strong one. So unusual that it will take something extraordinary to continue it into the next few years.

About the Author
By Kevin Kelleher
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in

Photo: Russian President Vladimir Putin Attends ASEAN-Russia Summit
Energyputin
Russians live with fuel shortages and rationing as Putin insists the war against Ukraine will go on
By The Associated PressJuly 3, 2026
36 minutes ago
bis
InvestingStock
Global stocks stage a rally as American markets take the day off
By Elaine Kurtenbach and The Associated PressJuly 3, 2026
46 minutes ago
Photo: Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner
Environmentjared kushner
Police use tear gas and pepper spray against Albanians protesting Trump family plans to develop unspoiled island into a luxury resort
By The Associated PressJuly 3, 2026
54 minutes ago
Kevin Warsh, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, during a news conference following a Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, June 17, 2026.
EconomyKevin Warsh
Inside the mind of Kevin Warsh: As told by his former boss Condoleezza Rice, his college friend, and his closest partner during the financial crisis
By Eleanor PringleJuly 3, 2026
1 hour ago
Microsoft’s next big bet isn’t on a model but on becoming the Swiss Army knife of enterprise AI
AIMicrosoft
Microsoft’s next big bet isn’t on a model but on becoming the Swiss Army knife of enterprise AI
By Sheryl Estrada and Sebastian HerreraJuly 3, 2026
1 hour ago
Those bots sending discounts to your email is dynamic pricing in action. Get revenge on those bots by abandoning your cart
RetailConsumer Spending
Those bots sending discounts to your email is dynamic pricing in action. Get revenge on those bots by abandoning your cart
By Catherina GioinoJuly 3, 2026
2 hours ago

Most Popular

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch
Big Tech
As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJuly 1, 2026
2 days ago
Mark Zuckerberg feeds his cows macadamia nuts and beer to create the 'highest-quality beef in the world' on his $300 million estate in Hawaii
Success
Mark Zuckerberg feeds his cows macadamia nuts and beer to create the 'highest-quality beef in the world' on his $300 million estate in Hawaii
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 2, 2026
17 hours ago
Current price of oil as of July 2, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of July 2, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 2, 2026
20 hours ago
Americans are escaping the U.S. for New Zealand where house prices have hit a new low—but only wealthy Americans with $3 million spare can invest
Success
Americans are escaping the U.S. for New Zealand where house prices have hit a new low—but only wealthy Americans with $3 million spare can invest
By Emma BurleighJuly 2, 2026
18 hours ago
Today, Emily Blunt is worth $80 million thanks to her Hollywood career—but she actually wanted to be a UN Spanish translator on $80K
Success
Today, Emily Blunt is worth $80 million thanks to her Hollywood career—but she actually wanted to be a UN Spanish translator on $80K
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJuly 2, 2026
1 day ago
Egg companies made $1.22 billion in profit off a $6 carton — now they’re buying their way out of a price-fixing case with 53 million donated eggs
Law
Egg companies made $1.22 billion in profit off a $6 carton — now they’re buying their way out of a price-fixing case with 53 million donated eggs
By Wyatte Grantham-Philips and The Associated PressJuly 2, 2026
15 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.