The Durham, N.C., company just completed a $185 million venture funding, which it will use to wrap up its $135 million purchase of InfoSpace Inc.'s mobile services business unit. The deal gives Motricity a hammerlock on the North American market for delivering mobile content, such as ring tones, music and games, to cell phones and other portable electronic devices.
It now has contracts with 11 of the top 13 wireless carriers in North America, including market leaders AT&T Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon Wireless, and claims it can service 95% of the handsets on the continent, according to the company. Additionally, its key competitors -- Qualcomm Inc., Amdocs Ltd. and VeriSign Inc. -- don't focus solely on providing mobile content.
The equity financing was led by Advanced Equities, Inc., New Enterprise Associates and Carl Icahn, who has put a total of $100 million in Motricity. Prior investors that may have participated include hedge fund Cyrus Capital Partners LP, Intel Capital, Massey Burch Capital Corp., Noro-Moseley Partners, Technology Crossover Ventures and Wakefield Group.
With so many high-profile customers and a prodigious $405 million in venture capital, Motricity's backers will likely be looking for the company to move in the direction of a high-profile IPO in 2008. - George White
See press release
See Oct. 16 story from TheDeal.com
