On April 19, I wrote about how Farecast was acquired by Microsoft for $115 million.  Ever since then, Microsoft has been working on integrating Farecast into the Live platform.  Demos of Live Search Farecast are now starting to appear on the Internet.

Currently the site is down, but I did find a few screen shots of the site from LiveSide.net.  The screen shots are below:

Live Search Farecast will help you predict when the best time to buy flights are so that you can find the best discount.  This is very helpful because if you ask any skilled pilot what part of the aviation industry they do not understand, they’ll say ticket prices.

Below is a video of Satya Nadella, Senior VP of Search, Portal, and Advertising demoing the product:

Video: Farecast DEMO by Satya Nadella at Advance08

“We’re excited to confirm that Farecast has been acquired by Microsoft! This acquisition creates tremendous opportunities for the Farecast team and our customers. We look forward to sharing more details in the weeks to come. On behalf of the Farecast team, thank you.”
-Hugh Crean, President/CEO of Farecast [via Farecost Blog]

Farecast, the flight comparsion search engine was just acquired by Microsoft for $115 million. Farecast is also based in Seattle, a city near Microsoft’s Redmond, Wash. headquarters. The amount that Farecast was acquired for was $115 million. MSN Travel and Farecast often partnered before the acquisition.

Before the acquisition, Farecast raised $32.7 million in funding. Farecast is a competitor of Kayak.com, a company funded by Sequoia Capital.

How did the software conglomerate convince Farecast that it’s time to be acquired? My guess is that Steve Ballmer walked into a room with Crean and gave the following pitch:
“In a sense, the bedrock of Microsoft has been… now it’s travelers… but the bedrock of Microsoft had been… getting after developers to extend our platform… because I think it’s all about the developers, developers, developers… but not anymore, baby!! It’s travelers, travelers, travelers!!!”

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=HTkA9L2J2gY[/youtube]