Updated: Motricity Also Received Investment From Velocity; Miller Joins Board
By Tricia Duryee - Wed 12 Mar 2008 09:47 AM PST
Velocity is on a tear: the investment group led by Jon Miller (ex-AOL (NYSE: TWX) CEO) and Ross Levinsohn (ex-Fox Interactive Head) has now become an investor in Motricity...this was part of the big December 2007 round of $185 million. The investment was discretely mentioned in a press release today that was focused on Miller joining Motricity’s board. No other details were released, so there’s no word on how much Velocity invested. A Motricity spokesman didn’t immediately return phone calls requesting comment.
In the Velocity release, Miller is credited with turning around AOL by restructuring its core business lines and helping the company deliver record annual profit growth of 21 percent. Motricity itself is in the middle of a restructuring. Following the purchase of InfoSpace, it announced last week, that it would meld the two company’s products together, leaning heavily on the InfoSpace mCore platform, lay off 250 people at its headquarters at Durham, N.C. and relocate to Bellevue to be with InfoSpace (NSDQ: INSP). The investment also follows comments by Icahn this week that questioned whether he should have made the investment, although he reaffirmed his faith in the technology.
Motricity’s CEO Ryan Wuerch, said in the release: “He understands the complexity of our ecosystem and how to structure a business that scales. He’ll add substantial value to Motricity as we continue to grow.” We’ve been covering all the changes at Motricity on MocoNews.
UPDATE: David Kaplan caught Jon Miller today after a panel discussion to get his thoughts on Motricity:
-- Motricity’s potential: “What’s fascinating about Motricity is that $1 billion of carrier-related revenue currently goes through it, which generates over $100 million [in revenue] for them. And that is just a really advanced ad scale platform that touches the entire mobile industry in the United States. We were attracted by a wide range of opportunities that it presents.”
-- Restructuring challenge: “It’s just gone through a merger and consistent with many mergers the company’s being restructured. The CEO and the company has made a commitment to move to Seattle. I think they’re through the toughest part, though none of these things are ever easy for the people involved.”
Posted in: Mobile, VC+M&A, Venture Capital
