Priceline.com

Priceline.com: A Layman's Guide To Manipulating The Media by Dennis Hatch is the true story of a dot com entrepreneur's rising business, which reflected the boom and bust of internet-based marketing when its stock (bolstered by a $252 million advertising campaign and the endorsement of William Shatner), peaked at a high of $165 a share before the awful truth was revealed -- priceline.com had never made a profit and lost more than $1 billion. Legions of small investors lost money when the stock was reduced to pennies on the dollar, yet priceline.com's officers, directors, warrant holders, and privileged associates had gained more than $3 billion in insider trades. A shocking, enthralling, and aptly researched tale of the extreme uses and abuses to which masterful marketing and business public relations can be put, Priceline.com is a scathing and documented indictment of the kind of corporate corruption that came to be associated with the excesses of Wall Street during the dot.com "wonder years".