Internet air travel broker Priceline.com Inc has named a former president and chief operating officer of Citicorp as its new chairman and chief executive. Richard Braddock has been a board member of, and investor in, Stamford, Connecticut-based Priceline since its inception. Braddock, who was with Citicorp from 1973 through 1992, has most recently been a non-executive director of true North Communications Inc and will continue in that role in addition to his duties at Priceline. He is also on the boards of Cadbury Schweppes, E*Trade, and Eastman Kodak. Braddock assumes the role shortly after the company announced $20m second round funding and the awarding of a patent for its business model (08/17/98). Priceline.com employs a reverse auction process whereby users submit the price they want to pay for a certain flight, and then the web site tries to match it with offers from airline. Since its launch in April, the company claims to have sold more than 50,000 airline tickets. It has also introduced a similar system for selling cars. Company founder and inventor of the auction technology Jay Walker becomes vice- chairman and is said to have other things in the pipeline on which he wished to concentrate, without being more specific.
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