Reports Question Longevity Of Motricity’s Relationship With AT&T
Motricity may no longer be providing the back-end infrastructure to AT&T as it prepares to launch its upcoming AppCenter, which will be replacing MEdia Mall as its downloadable content storefront this summer.
Instead, AT&T may have chosen Amdocs (NYSE: DOX), reports mobile-ent.biz, which saw documents advising content providers that they’ll be transitioned to Amdoc’s Qpass platform in August. But regardless, Motricity will continue to work with AT&T, and provides technology for the AT&T’s mobile browser, third-party SMS traffic in addition to its storefront services, said Motricity’s Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer Jim Ryan, who joined the company 60 days ago and once was in charge of data services at AT&T (NYSE: T).
Ryan declined to comment directly on whether Motricity will continue to provide storefront services to AT&T going forward, but he said: “I know all the folks over there and we continue to be friends. It
Losing AT&T has got to be a blow to Motricity, but honestly, who couldn't see this coming?! Losing AT&T to Amdocs on the heels of also losing the Bell Canada contract to Live Wire Mobile can't speak well for any of the top brass. Leadership comes from the top (Wuerch) and this company is SEVERELY lacking just that. Jim Ryan is probably one of the adults at Motricity, but even he can't save this sinking ship from it's captain.
This had been leaked months ago in comments following other Motricity related stories, and the response was typically "What's the source?" Considering 99% of commenters are ex-Mo employees, I'd say the source is pretty much the horse's mouth. Maybe now the public will see what employees have been saying all this time – the pretty facade around Motricity is crumbling. The only somewhat lucrative business they have left is the messaging; unfortunately way, way more money has been invested into this company than that business alone could ever repay.
The Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Marketing Officer "mutually" agreed with the largest customer that they should move their business elsewhere? Does that fall under "strategy" or "marketing"? Or the magic combination of the two? I wonder if that's in the job description "…and facilitate mutual win-win synergistic agreements with major customers to move their business elsewhere…" I wonder what Uncle Carl thinks of all this, or if he's already given up keeping track. If they're quoting Ryan, is Wuerch long for that world? I wonder how the "IPO" plans for this "brand behind the brand" are going. I wonder who's toting the note on Wuerch's Raleigh McMansion, which still hasn't sold. There must be lots of money in agreeing with customers to move their business! And volume! Money for homes coast to coast!
Hmmmm. Not as many comments on Motricity news as in days gone by. Does Motricity even matter any more?
@ Hmmmm: I see a lot of ex-InfoSpace & ex-Motricity people have now moved on with their lifes, so they probably don't follow this stuff anymore.
Even funnier are the comments by Jim Ryan on FierceWireless (http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/t-replacing-motricity-amdocs/2009-07-30)
"Overall, the health of our relationship [with AT&T] is quite strong," Ryan said.
[Ok so you just lost a big chunk of business with your largest account but "you're relationship is strong?" That's laughable.]
"…and continuing to win significant business in the U.S."
[ I don't recall any customer wins in the last year. What significant business have you won? Tell us? ]
"Ryan added that Motricity plans to announce several new partnerships in the weeks ahead."
[This is their standard and tired response yet new partnerships, customers never materialize.]
Check the headlines on Motricity over the past couple years and there 4 themes:
1. Executive turnover
2. Lawsuits
3. Lost Business
4. Talk of pending new deals "in the weeks ahead"
Hey Motricity, P.T. Barnum called, he said you're running out of suckers
I thought "M&A" was to be a part of Motricity's "core", not agreeing with customers mutually that they should do business with competitors. What happened to that "strategy"? Now they're "carefully picking areas they want to focus on as part of their larger strategy"? What does that mean? Because it sounds like it means they have no strategy. Largely, possibly, because they have no real value offering…
Well, it was 2 weeks ago that Ryan assured us that several new partnerships would be announced in the weeks ahead. We're all waiting. How many more weeks must we wait for these significant announcements?