InfoSpace Sells Mobile Services Business–What Next?

Oct 15, 2007 at 1:25pm ET by Greg Sterling

Only weeks ago, InfoSpace sold Switchboard and its local/directory business to Idearc/Superpages for a reported $225 million. Today, Motricity announced that it had acquired the company’s mobile services business for $135 million. Motricity wants the business for the revenues and carrier relationships and to tell a better story to the market as it moves toward a public offering.

This sale appears to leave InfoSpace with only its Dogpile and other desktop search properties, which have a very small market share. One can’t help but think that CEO Jim Volker and his team are selling off the company piece by piece — because that’s literally what seems to be happening.

I have some additional discussion of the mobile transaction on LocalMobileSearch.net.

Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land, and writes a personal blog Screenwerk, examining the broader world of media and advertising. He also posts at a Local Mobile Search, which is focused on the mobile Internet.

See more articles by Greg Sterling >

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