Priceline.com is an online travel agency for finding discount rates for travel-related purchases such as airline tickets and hotel stays.

Users can search for travel deals and discounts on the website, and in the past also offered the "Name Your Own Price" feature to bid on hotel rooms and flights.

Priceline was founded by Jay S. Walker, who left the company in 2000,[3] by which time Richard S. Braddock, Citicorp's #2, had come aboard as chief executive.

It has also added a more traditional model, called Express Deals, where travelers have presented prices and a geographical perimeter within which the hotel will be located but are not told the name of the establishment.

[11] Priceline announced in May 2015 that it would invest an additional $250 million in Chinese online travel company Ctrip to tap the fast-growing China market.

[18] Shatner allegedly sold the stock before the burst of the dot-com bubble, making a $600 million profit; however, this number was disputed as an urban legend by CEO Jeffery Boyd.

[19][20] An early ad campaign featuring Shatner had him belt out popular songs in spoken word, in the style of his album, The Transformed Man.

In commercials that began airing January 22, 2012, Shatner's Negotiator character apparently dies as a bus falls off a bridge and explodes.

In August 2012, Shatner was brought back in a commercial located on a stormy, cloudy beach, parodying the end of the film Point Break.

[22] In June 2012, Theresa Caputo, star of the television show Long Island Medium, appeared in a commercial for Priceline.com, in which she portrayed herself "connecting" with the late Priceline Negotiator character previously played by William Shatner.

JREF President DJ Grothe released an open letter calling out Priceline.com for endorsing Caputo, stating, "It is difficult to watch the show and not feel heartbroken for those who are desperate to hear from the departed... and even more so if they are being manipulated by a charlatan."

[24] In January 2013, Kaley Cuoco from the sitcom The Big Bang Theory joined William Shatner as his fictitious daughter in Priceline.com commercials.