Microsoft buys travel site Farecast for $115M
Microsoft has acquired travel website Farecast for a rumored $115 million. The Seattle startup’s technology will likely be incorporated into the software giant’s site MSN Travel — even before the deal, Farecast had already partnered with MSN.
Farecast’s technology made it a pretty tempting target for acquisition. As we noted a year ago, the Seattle startup owns its niche of predicting airfares. At the time, we also said that some of the big tech players wanted… Continue Reading
Roundup: Giving up on the “mobile web,” cleantech gets crunched, and more
Here’s the latest action:
Mobile enthusiast gives up on “mobile web” – Russell Beattie, a Silicon Valley developer and mobile enthusiast who spent two years working at Yahoo Mobile before launching a start-up called Mowser, has given up on the mobile sector. He writes: “The general answer is that I don’t actually believe in the ‘Mobile Web’ anymore, and therefore am less inclined to spend time and effort in a market I think is limited at… Continue Reading
Farecast, the airfare prediction site, raises $12.1M more
Farecast.com, the young Seattle start-up that now owns the niche of predicting airfares, and which continues to roll out new features (like letting you guarantee low fares), has raised $12.1 million more.
The round was led by Sutter Hill Ventures, and includes PAR Capital Management, Pinnacle Ventures, and Farecast board member and former Expedia CEO, Erik Blachford. Existing investors, Greylock Partners, Madrona Venture Group, and WRF Capital also participated — it has raised a total of… Continue Reading
Farecast rolls out service to lock into low airfare
Farecast, the web site which lets you see if airfares are headed lower or higher, has introduced a new, useful feature: A way to lock into a low price.
VentureBeat reported on the company’s test of this feature two months ago. Tomorrow (Monday) it is being rolled out publicly.
To repeat our example: Let’s say you’re planning a trip, say to Kansas on Dec 5, and Farecast shows a low price of $210 and further, predicts prices… Continue Reading
Farecast introduces way to lock into a low fare
Farecast, the web site which lets you see if airfares are headed lower or higher, has introduced another very useful feature: A way to lock into a low price.
VentureBeat is one of the few places you can try this out (see details below).
Let’s say you’re planning a trip, say to Kansas on Dec 5, and Farecast shows a low price of $210 and further, predicts prices are going to drop over the next few days.
Now,… Continue Reading
Farecast expands airfare predictions; just know when to use them.
Updated
Farecast, the start-up that predicts whether airfares are about to go up or down (earlier coverage here), has expanded predictions for 20 more airport destinations, bringing the total to 75 airports.
Until now, Farecast has offered airfare search results for only those destinations where it offers fare predictions. On Monday, it launches airfare search results for all airports in the U.S.
This area of forecasting is a tough one, because the airline industry makes so… Continue Reading