FlightCaster (YC S09) Acquired | Hacker News Reader

FlightCaster (YC S09) Acquired

blog.flightcaster.com

136 pointsjaf12duke32 comments

Super news for you guys, that's less than 18 months from launch to acquisition, really cool.

What I really love about this deal is this line:

"Before we go any further, let us address our users. FlightCaster.com will stay right where it is and continue to provide flight delay prediction for free. We're also making our mobile app free -- you can download it now. We'll continue to use our powerful algorithms to predict flight delays. We'll continue to push the envelope on getting the best travel intelligence to people when they need it."

How much better is that than: "hey our team just got acquired by Facebook/Some other 500 # gorilla and we'll be shutting down our service next week".

That really sets a good example on how it is done.

Yeah, it being a merger of interests rather than a strategic takeover will serve both the companies well.

"We're pleased to announce that FlightCaster has been acquired by Next Jump Inc. It's a good day here at FlightCaster HQ (freakin' phenomenal day!), and we're stoked about the new possibilities."

How much better an opening statement is that, when compared to generic PR shrill about XYZ Co joining with ABC Ltd to provide blah blah blah leverage. Made me even more excited for the team and FlightCaster users.

Thanks Jacob! --Jason from FlightCaster-- The good vibe is much appreciated. We've got really sweet stuff we'll be rolling out soon...

Congrats & thank you for a great product & access to your API!

We're (http://sleep.fm) using it to wake up our users & speak whether their flight is delayed or on-time. THough I do wonder if things will change in regards to the the API?

Agreed, great announcement. Congratulations!

That sounds like an excellent deal for both the team and users, awesome, don't see that often :-) Congratulations.

Again, where is the link to your site on your blog? I realize there is a link in the post. This has been a recurring theme here, site blogs that do not link to the site they are blogging about.

Another nice Lisp/Clojure success story. http://groups.google.com/group/clojure/msg/9203e07d197dbd29

Mentioning that, does anybody know what happened to Postabon, another Lisp startup, which went silent a while ago?

Congratulations, I'm really looking forward to where this can go.

Price?

The price of the deal wasn’t disclosed.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/10/next-jump-acquires-flightca...

I was aware of that, I was hoping for some "word on the street" type of information.

When private companies buy other private companies it's often equity-only. Here it's trickier because Next Jump is older and also gearing up for an IPO. It could be cash, or it could be very attractive equity. It doesn't seem like it'd have been a fire sale.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/22/confirmed-motorola-mobility... http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/05/yousendit-buys-email-collab... http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/10/next-jump-acquires-flightca...

Third exit by Tandem Entrepreneurs in less than a month -- ZumoDrive, Attassa, and now FlightCaster. All for undisclosed terms.

At first I thought tomtc meant that ex-Tandem computers folks had been part of these startups, But he is talking about http://www.tandementrepreneurs.com/

sherpalo http://www.sherpalo.com/ has invested in these companies too.

Good catch:Ram Shiram, the prime mover behind Sherpalo, is also on the board of directors at NextJump.

Shouldn't we reserve the "congratulations" until more info is provided about the terms (price) of the deal.EG- Pownce.com wasn't congratulated for being acquired.

Pownce was floundering because Twitter basically made them irrelevant. Flightcaster hasn't been around all that long and seemed to be doing fine. It's pretty unlikely that they sold for a price that they're unhappy with.

Not clear what the real situation was and it may be difficult to determine for a while. They clearly abandoned their initial business and business model completely, no shame in that, but this may just be a talent acquisition.

Congrats! I've always been curious how the conversation goes when one company reaches out to another in hopes of being acquired. Do deals like this usually happen as stock swaps?

Congratulations! I was wondering why Bradford's posts were suddenly becoming so focused on the news and personalisation! :)

Congratulations! Flightcaster seems like an awesome execution. Now I'm excited to see what you have planned... even though Woven is ambitious, you have the track record to pull it off!

Why next jump acquired flightcaster? (May be they also want to combine their ecommerce shop with flights along with price predictions data as a differentiator) but why?

> Why next hump acquired flightcaster?

Freudian slip or typo?

:-) Fixed

For those seeing an Error 503, the post can be seen at the top of their blog: http://blog.flightcaster.com/

How much??

Congrats!

Congratulations, sirs.

very niice! how much?

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