- The Price is Not Right: Name-your- own-price Web site Priceline.com said CFO Heidi Miller is leaving “to pursue other opportunities and apply her talents in a more established business environment.” She will be replaced by VP of finance Bob Mylod. The announcement came along with news that the company will be laying off 87 of its 535 employees. The Norwalk, Conn.-based company has experienced a succession of difficulties in recent months, including the closing of WebHouse Club, Priceline.com’s grocery and gasoline licensee.
Miller made headlines when she joined Priceline.com eight months ago, leaving her CFO post at Citigroup–a post which put her at No. 2 in Fortune magazine’s list of the most powerful women in business last year. She dropped to No. 20 after she joined Priceline.
- Ask the Oracle: The rumor that Larry Ellison is leaving Oracle is not true. CFO Jeff Henley is not leaving, either, though he did file a notice that he will sell 500,000 of his Oracle shares. Though the rumors were roundly dismissed by the company and analysts, the stock got hammered and only regained half the value it lost. It closed at $29 9/16 yesterday.
- G. Michael Durkin knows the joy of cola. Pepsi bottler PepsiAmericas Inc. said it named him SVP and CFO of the company to be formed by PepsiAmericas’s merger with rival Whitman Corp. Durkin was most recently SVP and general manager for Whitman’s eastern group.
- It’s Electric: F. Gordon Bitter was named SVP and CFO of Park Electrochemical Corp., a company that makes electronic materials for circuit boards. Bitter joins the Lake Success, N.Y.-based company from Hadco Corp., where he was SVP of finance and administration.
- Score! MyPoints.com Inc.’s Layton Han was named president of the San Francisco-based online direct marketing services firm. He was the company’s first CFO.