Motricity to Acquire Infospace’s Mobile Services Biz
Motricity, a leading provider of mobile content services and solutions, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the mobile services business unit of InfoSpace, Inc. a leading developer of mobile technologies and infrastructure services, for approximately $135 million in an all-cash transaction.
Carl Icahn and Advanced Equities, Inc. provided significant investments to lead the funding of the transaction.
Under the terms of the agreement, Motricity will acquire the mobile services division from InfoSpace, which provides managed services infrastructure for mobile carriers, including technology and services spanning mobile search, storefronts, portals and messaging services.
The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions and is expected to close within the next 90 days.
Upon closing, Ryan Wuerch will remain as chairman and CEO of Motricity and Steve Elfman, current executive vice president of InfoSpace’s mobile services business unit, will become president, COO of Motricity.
The acquisition expands Motricity’s customer base to include 11 of the top 13 carriers in North America including AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile, Bell Mobility, Tracfone and Alltel. Motricity’s managed service infrastructure powers storefronts and communities for nine of the top 13 carriers in North America and has generated over $1 billion of gross content sales to date.
Motricity’s customers include top television networks such as MTV, BET, and Turner. Products and services range from mobile portals and storefronts to messaging aggregation with access to more than 200 million mobile subscribers.
InfoSpace’s mobile portal, search, messaging and storefront offerings are available to over 200 million consumers through mobile operators such as AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, and Virgin Mobile.
