Jonathan Mills

Older, cooler, ready to profit:

“Jud Bowman says he is going to build the next $100 million revenue company in the Triangle. Don’t bet against him.

“The 27-year-old is the co-founder of Motricity, the Durham software company that he helped build with code that he wrote as a nerdy 18-year-old with Bill-Gates-like hair and glasses.

“But last year, Motricity merged with a company on the West Coast, and executives decided to move to a location outside Seattle.

“Bowman, who by this time was chief technology officer, said: No go. He didn’t move.

“Now with about 15 employees, loyal backers, far more experience and way cooler hair, Bowman is ready to “do it all over again.”

Via newsobserver.com

Personally, I’m a big fan of Jud….

So I had to call Time Warner Cable today, since I’m moving apartments at the end of the week, and needed my service transferred. In the process, I found it necessary to go to their website and review my subscribed services. Boy am I glad I did.

I found that I was not a Roadrunner subscriber, but actually an Earthlink subscriber. And that costs $5 more per month. For the same speed of service. (Standard RR is $39.95 if you already have digital cable, and I do.) And then I saw that there’s something called TURBO CHARGED ROADRUNNER. It’s just $9.95 more per month. BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE. If you talk to them long enough on the phone, they’ll eventually inform you that there’s a special on, whereby you get Turbo Charged RR for the same price as the standard service, $39.95/month, for 12 months.

So, in review, I cut my internet bill by $5 and nearly doubled my connection speed. Turbo RR is 10Mbps down, 512Kbps up. Yippie! DSL Reports confirms those numbers are pretty close…

Motricity Sets Strategic Plan Following InfoSpace Mobile Acquisition

DURHAM, N.C.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Motricity, a leading provider of mobile content infrastructure services, today outlined the company’s strategic operating plan following the acquisition of InfoSpace Mobile.

“Historically, Motricity has been involved in several areas of mobile content,” said Ryan Wuerch, chairman and CEO. “The InfoSpace acquisition gave us the opportunity to refine the focus of our organization on areas where we have the strongest market position and are seeing the fastest growth today. Moving forward, our strategy will be aligned with our core business of providing mobile content infrastructure services – enabling consumers to discover content inside and outside the walled garden. These services include powering portals, storefronts, managed web and search for mobile operators along with messaging gateway services for all customers needing a mobile solution.”

As part of this, Motricity will discontinue non-profitable and non-core businesses including the planned divestiture of its direct to consumer property, Pocketgear.com. In December, Motricity announced the sale of another direct to consumer property, eReader.com, to Fictionwise. The company will also be divesting certain business relationships in the media and entertainment arena.

In an effort to maximize the company’s focus on the needs of customers and drive efficiency through the organization, Motricity is optimizing its technology, processes and product set and will migrate customers from the Fuel platform to the mCore platform for Portal, Storefront, Search, Messaging and Managed Web products. Key elements from Fuel will be integrated into mCore to ensure that customers receive the best of both products. The Gateway business will remain the same. In addition, the company is consolidating office locations, moving the corporate headquarters location from Durham, NC, to Bellevue, WA, which is in close proximity to some of Motricity’s largest customers.

The company expects to reduce the workforce by approximately 250 positions over the next nine months. All affected employees will be offered severance packages and outplacement services.

Wuerch added, “The steps we’re taking to quickly integrate the two companies will position us very well for accelerated growth, while offering greater discipline and a more focused approach for our customers. While these decisions are always tough, we’re doing what is necessary to position Motricity for long-term and profitable growth.”

My dad was on a business trip in the Netherlands this past week. He managed to trip over some kind of construction object blocking the sidewalk. Ended up needing about seven stitches. He also broke his right arm, which is his only useful arm.

He’s back in Greenville now, but can’t really type, with his right arm in a cast. Should make doing his job rather interesting, er, difficult. He was struggling to do the laundry when I called this morning.

Let’s hope he gets better soon. And doesn’t have to go to the Netherlands quite so often.