Internet Entrepreneurs, The

Introduction

Net revolutionary or slick salesman? Jay Walker is a subject who divides people.

To some, the 45-year-old New Yorker is simply a smooth-talking marketing man who has taken his pitch on to the internet and struck gold. To others, he is a visionary, reinventing the way commerce is conducted, as vital to society's development as Thomas Edison was in his day, and worth every cent of his $5 billion fortune.

Critics level two main charges against Walker and Priceline, his internet company. The first is that the heavily loss-making website, which invites visitors to name the price they want to pay for a variety of goods, from airline tickets to hotel rooms, is not financially viable. Even if it does turn profitable, critics argue that ...