Jonathan Mills

Motricity Saga Continues: Company Sues Former Top Executive

“When Steve Elfman, one of Motricity’s highest-ranking executives, left to join Sprint Nextel earlier this year, it appeared to be a bad sign for Motricity, which had just paid $135 million for Elfman’s company, InfoSpace Mobile. But in an interview with us a couple months later, Motricity’s CEO Ryan Wuerch sounded upbeat, and suggested some potential upsides to his departure: “He’s the president at Sprint (NYSE: S), which is a customer.” Sprint was never a good customer, right? “No, it was never a good InfoSpace (NSDQ: INSP) customer, but for Motricity it has been a customer for awhile.”

“Well, that optimism apparently vanished quickly: Just two days after the interview appeared in mocoNews, Motricity sued Elfman, according to the Kansas City Business Journal. The suit alleges that Elfman knew Motricity would only buy the InfoSpace mobile business if he committed to take the job of president and COO and stay for two years after the sale closed.

from mocoNews.net

Personally, I have no opinion on the matter. None whatsoever.

it’s great if you’re in to brown

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….

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.”