Mobile application provider Motricity to lay off many of its workers

February 25, 2008 | Matt Marshall | Comments | |

ichan.jpgWherever investor Carl Icahn treads, there’s usually turmoil.

Now, one of his companies, Motricity, a Durham, N.C. provider of mobile content applications for telecom carriers, is preparing to lay off up to 200 of its 650 employees, according to a North Carolina business publication WRAL.

We haven’t written about Motricity yet at VentureBeat, but the big-name investor Carl Icahn and other venture capitalists have pumped in more than $350 million into the company. The private Motricity is now considering going public.

Motricity acquired the mobile business unit of InfoSpace last fall for $135M, with Icahn, NEA and others providing the $185 million needed for the acquisition. The resulting employee overlap meant that the company would have to make layoffs, so they’ve been expected.

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About the Author, Matt Marshall

Matt Marshall is editor and CEO of VentureBeat. Follow him on Twitter at @mmarshall, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • Do you know if the $999 fee is one-time only or do you need to pay a maintenance fee so they keep updating your account with the latest research information? If 5 years from now new research shows that I'm at risk for some disease, it would be good to know about it without being charged more. A one-time only fee for a lifetime service sounds pretty cheap though they do mention in the terms of service that you have to pay again to get tested again.
  • Think you meant to leave this comment on the previous story Benoit.
  • Oops yes sorry. I will blame my browser :)
  • anonymous
    It is true job cuts are coming... or so they tell us.

    This is such big news because of how badly a few of the executives are handling the lay offs. They are managed to let their employees learn about the scale of the lay offs through the local news. Not only that, the article broke on Friday, and they couldn't say anything until 2pm the next Monday. Regarding the rumor of moving headquarters - no mention. So currently nobody in the Durham office thinks that they'll keep their job and that is make everyone... unhappy.