farechase
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
FareChase was an Israeli travel metasearch startup that let consumers compare fares and prices across more than 150 travel websites for flights, hotels, cars, and vacations, then book directly with providers. Yahoo quietly acquired the company in July 2004 for a reported $20 million and relaunched it as the price-search engine inside Yahoo Travel — at one point making it the default search on the travel homepage. On March 25, 2009, Yahoo shut FareChase down to cut costs and refocus on core travel products.
02 / farechase FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
FareChase never became strategic enough for Yahoo to keep: after four years inside the portal, it remained a side feature that coexisted uneasily with Yahoo's lucrative Travelocity booking partnership — Travelocity refused to participate in FareChase results and bristled when Yahoo made FareChase the default search in 2008. When Carol Bartz became Yahoo CEO in January 2009 and ordered cost cuts, FareChase was an easy target: Yahoo said discontinuing it would let the company focus on 'strategic products such as Yahoo Travel Guides and Yahoo Trip Planner.' It was one of a long series of Yahoo deadpool decisions that year, alongside Kelkoo, Yahoo Photos, Mash, and JumpCut.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Acquired by Yahoo
Yahoo quietly acquired Israeli travel metasearch startup FareChase in July 2004 for a reported $20 million.
- Relaunched inside Yahoo Travel
Yahoo relaunched FareChase as the price-comparison search engine within Yahoo Travel, pulling real-time results from 150+ travel sites.
- Made default search
Yahoo made FareChase the default search on the Yahoo Travel homepage, rankling partner Travelocity, which refused to participate in its results.
- Shut down
On March 25, 2009, Yahoo shut down FareChase to cut costs and align resources on core strategic priorities, redirecting visitors to its main travel site.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Israeli travel metasearch startup FareChase was quietly acquired by Yahoo in July 2004 for a reported $20 million.
- 02
Yahoo relaunched it as the price-search engine inside Yahoo Travel, aggregating 150+ travel sites, and in 2008 made it the default search — angering booking partner Travelocity.
- 03
After Carol Bartz became Yahoo CEO in January 2009 and ordered cost cuts, FareChase — never a strategic product — was shut down on March 25, 2009, with visitors redirected to Yahoo Travel.