Benzinga | Mar 30, 2021 09:42AM EDT

This Day In Market History: The Priceline IPO

Each day, Benzinga takes a look back at a notable market-related moment that occurred on this date.

What Happened? On this day in 1999, Priceline.com completed its IPO.

Where The Market Was: The Dow finished the day at 9,913.26. The S&P 500 finished at 1,300.75.

What Else Was Going On In The World? In 1999, Jack Kervorkian was convicted of second-degree murder for the assisted suicide of Thomas Youk. Thirteen people were killed in a mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado. The average cost of a new house was $131,750.

Priceline's Debut: Priceline went public at a price of $16 per share on March 30, 1999. Just one month later, the stock closed at $162.37, an unbelievable 914 percent one-month gain.

Unfortunately, like so many other Dot Com darlings, Priceline's meteoric rise was short-lived. The stock tanked during the bursting of the bubble, and it ultimately lost 99 percent of its peak market cap of $23 billion by the end of 2000, bottoming at $6.37 per share. Priceline turned its first profit in 2001 and went on to become the world's largest online hotel reservation service in 2010.

After a 2017 name change to Booking Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:BKNG) the stock now trades at $2,351 per share and has a market cap of $96 billion.