Cramer: Priceline's Bombshell

N E W   Y O R K, Oct. 5 -- Reeling. Just reeling.

Stunned.

That’s how we feel about this news about Priceline.com’s WebHouse Club business. Seven months ago Matt “Captain Kirk” Jacobs and I visited Priceline founder Jay Walker at Walker Digital, the affiliate that seemed to be the nerve center for Priceline.com and WebHouse. Grocery products were stacked wall-to-wall. Walker was talking about how America was buying groceries a brand-new way. He was so bullish about the grocery business that we found ourselves feeling idiotic that we didn’t shop this way.

This Guy Was Humming!

I had been skeptical. I didn’t want to believe. But he had the statistics and the figures on the repeat buyers in New York and the new buyers in Philadelphia. He was about to get Procter & Gamble to play. And Wal-Mart. I mean, this guy was humming! If I was still skeptical about Jay’s abilities, how could I possibly explain how people I revered in real American business had flipped over Priceline.com? There was Heidi Miller, whom I was in awe of from her days as chief financial officer with Citigroup. Heck, she could have run Citi if she stuck around, but she left for Priceline.com. And Richard Braddock, yes, the same Richard Braddock that we used to call Midas on the trading desk, who turned around Citi and Eastman Kodak and everything else he touched. He could go anywhere. He went to Priceline.com.

And Dan Shulman, who sent AT&T down when he left to go to Priceline.com. And Maryann Keller, one of the savviest analysts in the business, known for never being fooled by an auto cycle. She could write her own ticket in our business. But she left for Priceline.com.