The Supreme Court is refusing to hear InfoSpace (NSDQ: INSP) founder Naveen Jain’s appeal, which accuses his former lawyers for an insider stock trading case that resulted in a $247 million judgment against him, AP reports. Jain and his wife Anuradha were suing J.P. Morgan Securities, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich &…

Mobile content infrastructure provider Motricity hasn’t had the easiest year. In 2008, it acquired InfoSpace (NSDQ: INSP) Mobile, and moved its operations cross country from North Carolina to InfoSpace’s Bellevue, Wash. headquarters. Soon after, Steve Elfman, one of InfoSpace’s top executives, quit to join Sprint (NYSE: S) Nextel and Motricity…

Bellevue, Wash.-based Motricity, which provides infrastructure to wireless carriers, has appointed Jim Smith to the role of President and COO; Richard Leigh to the position of SVP and General Counsel; Deepak Dhawan as SVP of Solutions and Services and Abe Danzinger as VP of Sales and Engineering. In the case…

China Mobile, the country’s dominant wireless carrier, is planning on launching a Android-based 3G mobile phone in the first quarter, reports Reuters, citing a source “with direct knowledge of the issue.” The device, named the “OPhone,” is being built by Chinese mobile device maker Lenovo Mobile, and will be the…

When Steve Elfman, one of Motricity’s highest-ranking executives, left to join Sprint Nextel earlier this year, it appeared to be a bad sign for Motricity, which had just paid $135 million for Elfman’s company, *InfoSpace* Mobile. But in an interview with us a couple months later, Motricity’s CEO Ryan Wuerch…

Mitch Rotter has been promoted to senior VP of content acquisition and strategy at Thumbplay, the company announced today. Rotter brings more than 15 years of experience in music and entertainment to his new position at the company, which he joined in 2005. The company credits him for having contributed…

Motricity, the mobile infrastructure company that acquired InfoSpace (NSDQ: INSP) Mobile for $135 million in October, has been relatively quiet following a burst of publicity over its controversial headquarters move, opting to focus on the structural changes, wooing new customers and working on contract renewals. Longer term, though, CEO Ryan…

EMI, in the midst of its own management reorg, has settled its ringtone royalties lawsuit with Infospace, though the terms were not disclosed. It did disclose the settlement in an SEC filing late yesterday. Infospace was sued by the music label in early 2007, to the tune of $100 million…

Jim Voelker, InfoSpace’s CEO, was named the best paid chief executive in the Northwest by The Seattle Times after he received a total compensation package of $38.1 million in 2007. The package, which was nearly 15 times as high as the average Northwest CEO, was particularly astronomic due, in part,…

A survey conducted at the Mobile Marketing Association’s Mobile Marketing Forum this week in New York quizzed advertising agencies, content providers, aggregators, carriers and others about the space to understand from an insider’s view of what is going on in the industry. The survey was completed by 129 attendees and…

Velocity Interactive Group, the investment group led by Jon Miller (ex-AOL (NYSE: TWX) CEO) and Ross Levinsohn (ex-Fox Interactive Head) has become an investor in Motricity…this was part of the big December round of $185 million. The investment was discreetly mentioned in a press release today that was focused on…

Activist investor Carl Icahn, who poured about $100 million into Motricity last year, said that he now questions the decision following the news that Motricity will layoff 250 of its 600 employees and move to Washington state to be closer to its InfoSpace (NSDQ: INSP) acquisition, according to LocalTechWire.com. Icahn…

Motricity paid $135 million in October to acquire the InfoSpace mobile division, and now InfoSpace is taking over. As we reported yesterday, Motricity said it will be laying off 250 of its 600 employees and will move its headquarters to Bellevue to be with InfoSpace (NSDQ: INSP). The company will…

Motricity has confirmed its much anticipated layoffs, putting the official number at 250. The elimination of more than one third of its workforce will occur over the next nine months, with all affected workers getting an unspecified severance. Previous guesses had pegged the number at about 200 of its 600-person…

Motricity, the mobile content/technology firm, told employees today that it will make an announcement regarding layoffs as early as March 3, according to a source citing a letter sent to employees. The letter, sent by Motricity’s CEO Ryan Wuerch today, said that the company did not have any more information…

Emotions are running high after rumors surfaced that Durham, N.C.-based Motricity might be cutting up to a third of its 650-person workforce and may relocate its headquarters to the Seattle-area following its $135 million purchase of Bellevue-based InfoSpace’s mobile division. Given the flurry of comments we received on our original…

Updated: We have two more updates on this story, here and here. Layoffs announcement may come as early as next week. Motricity, one of the biggest mobile content and applications firm in U.S. now after the buyout of Infospace’s mobile division last year, may now slash as many as 200…

Not too long ago, InfoSpace (NSDQ: INSP) was making millions of dollars from the sale of ringtones, and ramping up its content business, even securing deals with high-flying skateboarder Tony Hawk. And, even when that business dried up, it pushed forward using its deep carrier relationships to sell deck-and search-related…

Infospace, which has now sold off all of its mobile businesses and fully focused on online search, will cut about 35 jobs, or about 20 percent of its work force, and take Q4 charges of $7 million to $8 million as a result, the company announced today. Also, it expects…