PALO ALTO, CA— Priceline.com purchased the trademarks and Internet domain names of the discount travel site Lowestfare.com. Priceline said it has started selling airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars and vacation packages on the Lowestfare website, under its own model which lets buyers bid on the travel services they are seeking. Lowestfare was launched by TWA Airlines but when AMR Corp.s American Airlines acquired TWA assets in bankruptcy last year, it indicated it was not interested in operating the Lowestfare.com site. Although the site struggled to be profitable, it had a strong following, reaching 602,000 unique visitors in March, according to Neilsen NetRatings. Priceline said it has about 3.5 million unique visitors a month.
