Perhaps you are looking for something like this instead? :)

use strict;
use Data::Dumper;

while (<DATA>)
{
    chomp;                  # remove trailing \n, optional
    my @rec = split /\|/;   # split records

    my $date = $rec[0];
    my ($activity, $machine, $requester) =
            $rec[2] =~ /(.*)\sfor\s(.*)\s\(requested by (.*)\)/;

    print "$date, $activity, $machine, $requester\n";
}

__DATA__
10/1/2003 2:06:32 AM|1|Checkout Started for US-02-14@comany.com (reque
+sted by aad6870)
10/2/2003 2:07:17 AM|1|Checkout Processed for US-02-14@company.com (re
+quested by aad6870)
10/3/2003 2:09:37 AM|1|Checkin Processed for DN-US-02-14@company.com (
+requested by aad6870)
10/4/2003 9:37:53 AM|1|Checkout Started for DN-US-02-14@company.com (r
+equested by heavis6608)
10/5/2003 9:38:29 PM|1|Checkout Processed for US-02-14@company.com (re
+quested by heavis6608)
10/6/2003 10:10:21 AM|1|Checkout Started for US-02-17@company.com (req
+uested by vm_karthik3521)
[download]

And the output is -

10/1/2003 2:06:32 AM, Checkout Started, US-02-14@comany.com, aad6870
10/2/2003 2:07:17 AM, Checkout Processed, US-02-14@company.com, aad687
+0
10/3/2003 2:09:37 AM, Checkin Processed, DN-US-02-14@company.com, aad6
+870
10/4/2003 9:37:53 AM, Checkout Started, DN-US-02-14@company.com, heavi
+s6608
10/5/2003 9:38:29 PM, Checkout Processed, US-02-14@company.com, heavis
+6608
10/6/2003 10:10:21 AM, Checkout Started, US-02-17@company.com, vm_kart
+hik3521
[download]

I think the only trick here is with the my ($var) = $str =~ /(.*)/; idiom. Which is a handy one to master. tachyon had a Perl Meditation not long ago on this topic... 291543

Also you don't need to print the elements one line at a time, you can print them all at once.