Priceline.com and Softbank join in airline, hotel offering

TOKYO (Bloomberg News Service) — Priceline.com Inc., which lets customers bid on line for airplane tickets, hotel rooms and goods such as food and gas, will form a joint venture in Japan with Softbank Corp., Japan's largest Internet backer, to let users bid for airplane tickets and hotel rooms on the Internet.

The joint venture is to offer "reverse auctions," a service that will allow users to specify in advance the terms of airline tickets they want to buy, such as destination and price limits. They then select the best option for airline tickets or hotel rooms from among those presented on line from travel agencies and airlines.