Motricity plans IPO to raise $250 million

Motricity, a Bellevue mobile-phone-services company, has filed plans for an initial public offering to raise up to $250 million.

In its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, the company said it plans to use the money for working capital, as well as capital expenditures and acquisitions.

Motricity's main product is mCore, a mobile-phone platform that manages a cellphone's service offerings, including a Web portal, storefront, messaging and other features.

Those services typically carry the brand of the phone's carrier.

Motricity's chief customers are wireless carriers, including the top five in the U.S., according to the company's filing. It also said it provides mobile data services to more than 30 million subscribers worldwide.

Previously based in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina, Motricity moved to Bellevue after it acquired the mobile operations of InfoSpace in 2007, a deal valued at $135 million.

The two companies competed in the same market — mCore was InfoSpace's platform — and came at a time that Bellevue-based InfoSpace was shedding major assets to focus on online search.

Through the acquisition, Motricity acquired about 220 InfoSpace employees and office space in downtown Bellevue that now serves as the company's headquarters.

Motricity's filing shows the company reported sales of $103.6 million and a net loss of $100.5 million in 2008. For the first nine months of 2009, it had sales of $88.7 million and a loss of $28.8 million.

Led by Chief Executive Ryan Wuerch, the company reported it had 346 employees at the end of November.