LV firm adds hotels to hospitality service

Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2001 | 11:13 a.m.

PurchasePro.com, a Las Vegas-based Internet business, today announced a deal that adds 10 hotel chains encompassing more than 3,114 hotel properties to its hospitality e-marketplace.

PurchasePro's cyber-marketplaces allow businesses to buy, sell and bid on products in bulk quantities, a system known as business-to-business e-commerce.

The hotels added to the supply-chain include Coastal Hotel Group, Good Nite Inns Inc., Jupiter Beach Resort, North Central Management, MOA Hospitality, Elms Resort, Hotel Delmonico, Lighthouse Properties, Innkeeper Hospitality and Flagship Resort.

"PurchasePro will provide our company with instant access to literally hundreds of thousands of businesses that offer supplies and services across the globe," said Robert Aurbauch, director of purchasing for Inkeeper Hospitality.

The deal comes on the heels of a management change at PurchasePro and weeks of busy activity of the company's stock. PurchasePro's board of directors named Shawn McGhee, 37, president and chief operating officer late last week, replacing Christopher Carton, who the company said retired at age 42.

PurchasePro's shares were down 44 cents at $12.56 per share in mid-day trading today on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

The stock was hammered in early February on a series of events: a report in Barron's that questioned the companies accounting practices, stock valuation and business model; a lawsuit by All Creative Technologies accusing the PurchasePro executives of racketeering in an effort to steal its business plan; and a downgrade in the company's stock by Prudential Securities, the company's underwriter, based on concerns that many customers would not renew their contracts.

PurchasePro shed 42 percent of its stock value in the week ending Feb. 9, closing at $14.50 per share.