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Priceline.com Inc., one of the Internet's top performers, is challenging popular eBay Inc. with a spinoff company headquartered in Atlanta.
The new company will use the same reverse auction model as Priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN), which allows buyers to name the price they are willing to pay for a variety of items, such as plane tickets and cars. The site then attempts to match the bid with companies willing to sell at that price.
Priceline.com, of Stamford, Conn., connects
businesses and consumers. The new site,
which doesn't have a name yet, will operate a
reverse auction for consumers selling to
consumers, according to Jeff Hoffman, who is
CEO of the unnamed company and also
president of Priceline.com's development
division.
The new company will be, in effect, the opposite of eBay, an auction site which lets sellers set the price, he said.
"We are buyer-driven. We think we have a better way to do it," Hoffman said.
The new company has 50 employees in an office near Cobb Galleria Centre. Hoffman
expects to have 300 employees in a year, He will formally announce the company and its...