priceline Stumbles, Overshadowed by Yahoo!'s Success

Damn that Yahoo! (YHOO Quote).

Since the company kicked off the Internet sector's summer earnings season by reporting better-than-expected profits and sales, the shares of other e-tailers have rallied in the hope that they, too, will replicate Yahoo!'s success. Since Yahoo! reported after the bell July 11, priceline.com's (PCLN Quote) shares have risen 23%, Amazon.com's (AMZN Quote) 24% and eBay's (EBAY Quote) 34%.

Alas, poor priceline fell back to Earth Monday when it reported a loss narrower than Wall Street had expected, but apparently not quite as good as the last-minute hype had anticipated. priceline said its loss, excluding certain items, was a penny a share, better than the 3-cent loss anticipated by analysts. Revenue rose to a better-than-expected $352 million, more than triple that of the year-ago quarter and a 12% jump from the first quarter. priceline's shares, however, fell 5 15/16, or 15%, to 34 1/8.

Heath Bar Crunch

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