Motricity Acquires Mobile Services Business of InfoSpace

US-based Motricity has acquired mobile services business unit of InfoSpace for $135 million to expand its customer base and market reach.

InfoSpace provides managed services infrastructure for mobile carriers, including technology and services spanning mobile search, storefronts, portals and messaging services.

The acquisition is expected to expand Motricity’s customer base by including 11 of the top 13 carriers in North America such as AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint and T-Mobile. In addition, it will expand Motricity’s international presence by adding offices in the UK, Paris and the Netherlands, and customers throughout Europe, including Virgin UK, KPN and Vodafone.

“We’re combining two of the best companies in the industry to create the premier provider of mobile platform infrastructure,” said Ryan Wuerch, chairman and chief executive at Motricity. “Together, we will be powering over a billion dollars in content sales generated from tens of billions of page views and user impressions and hundreds of millions of search queries in North America.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Ryan Wuerch will remain as chairman and chief executive of Motricity while Steve Elfman, former executive vice president of InfoSpace’s mobile services business unit, has been named president and chief operating officer of Motricity.

In a similar development, in July 2007, content and messaging solutions provider MobileMail agreed to acquire Froggie and Norris Marketing to expand its product portfolio and market reach.

Source:ComputerWire daily updates