Author: Tricia Duryee

After promising an initial public offering for the past six years, Motricity has officially filed documents to raise up to $250 million through the public markets.

The man behind the deal is Ryan Wuerch, the founder and CEO of the Bellevue, Wash.-based company, who has been in the spotlight for better or for worse. While being very successful at raising hundreds of millions of dollars from investors, like billionaire Carl Icahn, he was highly criticized for his decision to buy InfoSpace (NSDQ: INSP) Mobile for $135 million in 2007. That acquisition brought out his harshest critics, who were enraged after he laid off most of the Motricity’s employees; moved the headquarters from North Carolina to Bellevue; and ditched Motricity’s core technology in favor of InfoSpace’s. Still, today, it was likely the best decision for the the company given its reliance on its previous competitor’s technology, clients and employees.

Now that Motricity has filed for an IPO, there’s more information available on how the 42-year-old Wuerch managed the company from behind the scenes. We scoured the public filings to find his compensation package, which includes generous relocation benefits and incentives to either sell the company or have it go public in the next six months.

Wuerch has plenty of incentive in his employment agreement to either sell the company or have it go public by July 25:

—Salary: In 2009, Wuerch earned a salary of $365,000 and all other compensation of $73,000, which consisted of a stipend for cost of living adjustments for moving to the Seattle area. He will continue to get the adjustments until July 25, 2010 or the company’s IPO (whichever comes first). The company said that while no executives received salary increases during 2009 because of the poor economy, Wuerch’s salary will increase to $450,000 as soon as the company goes public.

—Motivation to go public: Wuerch entered into a new two-year employment agreement on Jan. 19, 2010. In 2010, he will have the chance to earn an additional 75 percent of his salary if the company hits certain financial thresholds. When the company IPOs, it will increase to 100% of his salary and it will be pro-rated from the date of the IPO.

—Motivation to sell: If Motricity is sold prior to either an IPO or July 25, Wuerch will receive a bonus. If the sale price is less than $300 million, he will receive a lump sum of $2 million. If it sells for more than $300 million, Wuerch will receive 1 percent of the value of the sale. (A $400 million-dollar sale will mean $4 million, etc.). In both circumstances, all of the company’s equity must be sold.

Motricity is still paying the price for relocating the company to Bellevue:

—Relocation: Motricity purchased both Wuerch’s house and Motricity’s COO Jim Smith’s house based on prices determined by a third-party company. Wuerch’s house was appraised at $2 million and Smith’s was worth $1.2 million. Under the arrangements, Motricity paid the mortgage and all costs associated with the homes, including taxes, insurance, utilities, maintenance, repairs and improvements, until they sold. In November, Smith’s house sold for $950,000, and Wuerch’s still is on the market.

—Wuerch’s personal loans: As of November 2009, Wuerch owed $354,860 to Motricity based on loans from 2004 that were incurred as part of his move to North Carolina. In addition,  Wuerch also borrowed $80,069 for legal fees. On Dec. 18, Wuerch wiped his debt of $434,929 clean by swapping out 332,007 shares of his vested common stock. These loans are no longer outstanding.

Related

• Motricity Leaning Heavily On InfoSpace Acquisition; Laying Off 250 And Moving To Bellevue
• Infospace Exits Mobile Business; Motricity Buys Its Mobile Services Business For $135 Million
• Motricity’s Jim Ryan: “Shame On Us” If The Mobile Internet Becomes Like The Internet
• Opera, Motricity Help To Roll Out AT&T’s New Mobile Web Experience
• Reports Question Longevity Of Motricity’s Relationship With AT&T
• Motricity Sees Gains In 2008; Hits Revenue Target Of $100 Million
• Motricity Saga Continues: Company Sues Former Top Executive
• Interview: Ryan Wuerch, CEO, Motricity: IPO Still An Opportunity; ‘M&A Will Be A Part Of Our Core’

Motricity, the Bellevue, Wash.-based company that provides back-end infrastructure to wireless carriers, including web portals, storefront and messaging platforms, has filed documents with the SEC today with the intention raising $250 million in an initial public offering. It will trade under the ticker “MOTR.”

The company, which has raised $267 million in venture capital and has promised an IPO since 2004 has not been without its controversies, but says it sees significant growth opportunities and would like to raise additional capital. The opportunities include expanding into international markets, such as Southeast Asia, India and Latin America, developing new technologies for the carrier; and acquiring companies.

It appears that some of the stock being sold will be owned by shareholders and it is not clear how much of the proceeds will go to the company. In the filing it simply says “Motricity will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of the shares being sold by the selling stockholders.” The biggest shareholders are: Advanced Equities (26.4 percent), Carl Icahn (21.1 percent), New Enterprise Associates (8.38 percent), Technology Crossover Ventures (5.54 percent) and the company’s CEO Ryan Wuerch (4.98 percent). Well-known shareholder advocate Icahn got involved following Motricity’s of InfoSpace (NSDQ: INSP) Mobile.

Now that Motricity has filed for a public offering, the covers can now be pulled back on the company’s financials. It said its customers include the top five wireless carriers in the U.S., including Verizon Wireless, AT&T (NYSE: T), Sprint (NYSE: S), T-Mobile USA and TracFone Wireless, and that to date, more than $3 billion in revenue has been generated through its mobile data platforms. For the past 12 months ended Sept. 30, the company, which has 346 employees, generated revenue of $117.1 million. For the nine month period ended Sept. 30, the company’s net loss attributable to common shareholders totaled $28.8 million. As of Sept. 30, the company almost had $20 million in cash and equivalents.

A majority of its revenues come from its largest customers—more than half, or 55 percent, of its revenues come from AT&T, and 19 percent from Verizon Wireless. Its five largest customers accounted for about 67 percent of its revenues in 2008 and 83 percent of revenues for the nine months ended September 30, 2009.

The company definitely has its risks. Mostly, it has to contend with being an old-school infrastructure company in a fast-paced business climate where mobile is increasingly becoming open and leaving the old walled-garden approaches in the dust. It also said some of its contracts with its two biggest clients—AT&T and Verizon Wireless—will be expiring in mid-to-late 2010. Motricity addressed the concerns about where the open platforms are headed: “We derived 31% of our revenue based on the number of active mobile subscribers who accessed mobile content and applications through our customers’ carrier-branded mobile web portals for the nine months ended September 30, 2009. However, with the growth of the iPhone and smartphone business models, our customers’ services may be bypassed or become inaccessible.”

Related

• Motricity’s Jim Ryan: “Shame On Us” If The Mobile Internet Becomes Like The Internet
• Opera, Motricity Help To Roll Out AT&T’s New Mobile Web Experience
• Reports Question Longevity Of Motricity’s Relationship With AT&T
• Motricity Sees Gains In 2008; Hits Revenue Target Of $100 Million
• Motricity Saga Continues: Company Sues Former Top Executive
• Interview: Ryan Wuerch, CEO, Motricity: IPO Still An Opportunity; ‘M&A Will Be A Part Of Our Core’

There’s 50-or-so rogue devices being used on Apple’s Cupertino, Calif. campus, according to Flurry, an analytics company that says it used both IP addresses and GPS coordinates to make the identification.

Flurry was able to track them down because testers downloaded around 200 applications to the devices that were using its analytics software. In a release sent to reporters, the company wrote: “Many of these applications (about 200 that we can see) match the kinds of apps that have been presumed to run on the Tablet.” The most popular categories are: games, followed by entertainment, news and books, lifestyle and utilities. More details can be read on the company’s blog here.

On Wednesday, Apple is holding a press event in San Francisco to unveil its “latest creation.” While it’s widely believed to be a new tablet device, there’s been no verification of that yet to date besides endless numbers of media reports. This report doesn’t really offer confirmation that it’s a tablet, but rather, just proves that Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) is indeed testing something new—a phone, a new OS version, anything….

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) bought the largest mobile advertising network—by far—and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) purchased the second largest.

But we didn’t know that for sure—at least not until now. Seattle-based Ground Truth, which has been operating in stealth mode for about a year, has quietly been collecting data from carriers and other infrastructure companies to see the real traffic logs of the mobile internet. Without that kind of access, the industry has been operating blind, relying instead on customer surveys, analyst estimates, or other third-party reports. If the data is all that it cracks up to be, there’s a chance that mobile can gain credibility and rival other great advertising mediums like the internet and TV. Ground Truth’s Founder and CTO Michael Libes: “This is the first time we have actual numbers, not surveys or estimates on what people are doing on the mobile internet.”

Here’s some of what can be learned:

—Google did buy the largest mobile ad network, by far, Libes said, and Apple bought Quattro Wireless, the second-largest.

—More than half of the top 10 websites in mobile are mobile-specific brands, and not high-profile internet brands. The are: MySpace, Facebook, Google, Mocospace, FunForMobile, AirG, Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), Cellufun, Mbuzz and Myxer.

—64 percent of all mobile page views are for social networks.

—The carrier decks/portals are only generating 9-10 percent of the mobile internet’s page views, despite the presumption that carriers can influence where subscribers go.

For Libes, the information is a gold mind. Having worked at several mobile startups, including co-founding mobile search firm Medio Systems, he was always looking for data points to make decisions. But mobile was at a disadvantage because it doesn’t use cookies to track users’ behavior, like the wired internet. Up until now, anecdotal evidence has indicated that the mobile internet is growing rapidly. Just ask Libes if this is true: “It’s not a tiny little market. Browsing on phones is picking up dramatically….My guess is that we are somewhere before the knee of the curve and that’s with things doubling year-over-year. Soon it will hit and then we will be growing by five or six times.”

There’s a lot going on behind the scenes at Ground Truth to make this happen. It had to convince the carriers and others that it was in their best interests to share such sensitive and proprietary information. In order to do so, Ground Truth promises to make the data “non-personally identifiable.” That means it will never be used for immediate actions, such as using a subscriber’s location to send them an ad. Instead, they aggregate the information. For example of the millions and millions of data records Ground Truth receives, it picks a sample size of 2.5 million subscribers.

For now, they are tracking five key metrics about the mobile internet, including number of unique visitors, page views, sessions, session length and advertising clicks. In the future, they’ll track other aspects of mobile, like video, applications, data cards and shortcodes. The information is updated weekly, not monthly or quarterly like other reports. 

The carriers bought in to the idea because they may have all the data, but it has never been easily accessible. Sterling Wilson, who was brought on in February as president and CEO, said carriers have never been great marketers. “Much like the publishers, they need a tool. It’s very valuable to them,” he said. Previously, Wilson was president of Qpass, a back-end infrastructure company that was purchased by Amdocs (NYSE: DOX) for $275 million.

Ground Truth will sell access to their database to publishers, who want to learn more about how their mobile websites and their competitors’ are doing. That database will be limited to the 2.5 million sample set, but Ground Truth will generate detailed reports for carriers that are based on their entire subscriber base. Wilson would not say how many partners they currently have, but that they “have a broad variety of data providers who have a diverse group of subscribers using multiple handsets.”

Since starting up in February, Ground Truth has grown to 15 to 20 employees, including contractors. It has raised $2.6 million in venture capital from Walt Disney’s Steamboat Ventures and Seattle-based Voyager Capital.

Related

• Stealth Mobile Analytics Startup Ground Truth Raises $2.62 Million
• VCs Say The Biggest Opportunities In Mobile Are Not Sexy Apps

The Mobile Entertainment Forum has conducted a survey of 100 people from 80 different U.S. companies to gauge how confident they are about the mobile content industry.

While the survey mostly indicates signs of a recovery with 42 percent of respondents expecting revenues to grow by 28 percent last year, content owners and application developers were the least optimistic of the bunch. Jim Beddows, MEF Americas Chairmen said there’s likely two trends driving this: mobile advertising are not meeting expectations and some of their more historical revenues are falling because of the move to more open devices, like smartphones.

Traditionally, operators paid for content to encourage subscribers to sign up for data packages, and customers signed up for more subscription services, like ringtones. Both of those sectors have become less attractive as consumers go on the open internet for content and entertainment.

The survey found that only 39 percent of content owners expected revenues to increase 20 percent or more last year compared to 2008. Off-deck aggregators were the most optimistic, with nearly half of them, or 49 percent, expecting 20 percent-plus growth. Beddows: “Originally content was provided through a la carte purchases or subscriptions, but now with the mobile internet, the big expectation is mobile advertising, and it really hasn’t panned out.” He said some of it may have to do with the economy. “The economy will continue will rebound and with that advertising dollars will come back. At the end of the day, mobile will cannibalize other forms of advertising.”

When projecting revenues for 2010, content owners were more optimistic with 52 percent of the respondents expecting anticipating 20 percent or more revenue growth. In 2010, Beddows said MEF will help the industry study additional mobile revenue streams. Initially, they’ll look at the broader mCommerce sector, which includes things like mobile vouchers, coupons and mobile ticketing, he said. The first stage of this report is expected to be ready in the second quarter.

Nickelodeon said it will double its efforts in mobile this year, bringing the number of applications it has rolled out in the space to 40 since launching its first in February last year.

In that time frame, Nickelodeon fans have downloaded 4.5 million iPhone apps with the bulk of them occurring in the past six to seven months, said Steve Youngwood, EVP of digital for Nickelodeon Kids and Family. “We want our content to be everywhere our audiences are, and when you look at the iPhone and other smartphones, they are becoming portable content devices, and we view them as a great platform.”

So far, Nick’s iPhone apps have been focused on games or personalization tools. Recently, the network launched iCarly: Sam’s Remote and Go, Diego, Go! Musical Missions. The iCarly app spoofs the highly rated TV show among teenage girls. The show stars a girl who has her own web show and the iPhone app, called Sam’s remote, turns your iPod or iPhone into a remote control that features sound effects from the show, like random dancing, applause, boos, and Sam’s insults.

So far, Youngwood said much of what Nick has done in mobile has been experimental as the space continues to evolve. He said a lot of fine-tuning has been spent on figuring out its audience; what’s the right mix of categories for apps; pricing and platforms.

—On categories: Youngwood said the applications today are mostly games and personalization, but not video. “I think we are experimenting and looking at a couple different things – like everyone is. But if you look at iTunes, an iCarly episode was the No. 1 downloaded video on iTunes yesterday, so we feel we are on the iPhone and iPod Touch with video already. We will experiment with apps, and what’s working really well is games and personalization.” Down the round, they’ll try more news and information and target content to parents and adults. Nick also has video on phones through FLO TV, MobiTV and a BlackBerry video application.

—Smartphone availability: Youngwood said they’ve done a ton of research on whether kids have access to smartphones, like the iPhone, and there’s two trends: One is that parents are handing off their phones to kids to be entertained while in the car or elsewhere, and two, the iPod Touch has been a hit among the 9 to 11 year olds.

—Other platforms: Nickelodeon has first focused on the iPhone platform, but is considering developing some of the best-selling apps for BlackBerry, Android, and maybe Palm (NSDQ: PALM) and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile. Of course, Nickelodeon also has a mobile web site, but it’s not where consumers can easily play games or video because Flash is not readily available on phones. “Apps have really opened the door to taking gaming on mobile basis,” Youngwood said. “A kid cannot play a game in the airplane if it’s a wap site.”

—Paid or free?:: Nickelodeon charges for all of its apps today, and typically offers a lighter version for free. It has only started recently looking at advertising as an option in apps. “We are focused on getting the product right and making sure we understand the consumer—that’s a place we’ll look and see if it’s appropriate.” As for who are the decision-makers who by the apps, Youngwood said it’s typically the parent with the child being the heavy influencer.” Youngwood declined to say whether the business is profitable.

Motorola (NYSE: MOT) has made some significant headway in the smartphone market, by betting heavily on the Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Android platform, according to the latest report by AdMob, which analyzes the most popular types of handsets in its ad network.

AdMob looks at the traffic on its ad network to determine what are the most popular handsets by region. AdMob’s network is only a sampling of the overall market, and it’s hard to say how its been affected since the announcement that Google would purchase the company for $750 million. But putting that aside, its report sheds some light on Motorola, which up until recently had an insignificant presence in the smartphone space. In North America, AdMob found that Motorola had the second most popular handset after the iPhone with the Droid receiving 11.3 percent of ad requests in December. What’s more, the Motorola CLIQ was the sixth most popular handset with 3.4 percent of the ad requests.

Still,the iPhone continues to dominate in North America, with the popular Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) device requesting nearly half, or about 48.5 percent of ad requests. AdMob said that most of those requests are generated inside applications, and not in the browser.

Motorola’s successes also signal the strength of the Android operating system. In North America, Android’s share grew throughout the year reaching 27 percent in the fourth quarter, which was by far the highest penetration in any region. Besides Motorola, other well-performing handsets running Android included the HTC Dream, Hero, Magic and Droid Eris and the Samsung Moment. The BlackBerry 8300 and Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre also made the top 10 list in North America.

Worldwide Android’s growth was less dramatic, but still managed to jump from 1 percent In the fourth quarter 2008 to 16 percent in the fourth quarter 2009. While Apple and HTC continued to grow and RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) stayed flat, Nokia (NYSE: NOK) lost ground in 2009. Nokia’s share of requests in the AdMob network declined to 18 percent in the fourth quarter, dropping dramatically from 33 percent in the year-ago period. However, AdMob notes that differences exist between regions as Nokia is still the largest device manufacturer by share of requests in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. AdMob’s network includes advertising in iPhone, Android and Palm OS applications, as well as mobile web sites.

The White House has launched an iPhone application, which is consistent with President Obama’s mission to create a more open and transparent government. But if you have anything other than an iPhone, you are going to have to wait.

The White House did not say any other applications for other platforms are in the works (despite Obama’s known love for the BlackBerry), and instead said it will launch a new mobile web version of the White House website at mobile.WhiteHouse.gov, which will be optimized for a number of phones. Release.

The White House said that the application was important because “Mobile internet access is an important way Americans are staying informed.” The iPhone app is very much an extension of the White House’s website, including access to the White House Blog and the Briefing Room. There will also be behind-the-scenes photos and videos, including speeches, press briefings and special events. To kick things off, iPhone users will be able to access next week’s State of the Union speech.

SMS GupShup has raised $12 million to help build out its texting-based mobile-phone communities in India. The company, which has operations in both Santa Clara, Calif. and Mumbai, India, claims to serve 26 million users in roughly two million topics, ranging from religious groups to sports teams.

The fourth round of capital was led by Globespan Capital Partners; existing investors Charles River Ventures and Helion Venture Partners also participated. To date, the company has raised $37 million. SMS GupShup will rely on advertising from brands such as Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), Puma, Cadbury and others, to bring the company to profitability this year. The money will be used to expand into the Philippines and Indonesia, and to grow the organization to 150 employees by adding another 20 positions in marketing, engineering and sales.

EA Mobile plans to announce tomorrow at a press event in Montreal that Tetris has been downloaded on to mobile phones 100 million times since 2005. That’s a tremendous number, considering that every single one of those downloads was paid for.

EA said it has been building the mobile version of Tetris since 2006 for Blue Planet Software, which manages the licensing rights to the popular block-stacking game. Tetris first released a mobile version in 2001, but its big success came on the portable Game Boy platform in 1989. EA gained mobile rights to Tetris after buying Jamdat in December 2005 for $680 million. Today, the game’s biggest growth is occurring in mobile, EA said in a release.

The Tetris brand is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, having been originally created in 1984. The game was invented by Russian-born mathematician Alexey Pajitnov, and first became available in mobile with the help of Japan’s G-mode.

Adam Sussman, VP Worldwide Publishing for EA Mobile, said the game’s history lends itself to being the biggest franchise in mobile gaming. “Our strong relationship with Blue Planet Software has enabled us to optimally adapt Tetris to the ever evolving handset market while keeping the true spirit of the game alive. 100 million paid downloads are testament to this,” he said. Today, EA claims that today Tetris is on “every mobile platform.”

Now that Apple’s hush-hush event is exactly one-week away, the amount of speculation has hit a new high as to what the company’s “latest creation” is. If you are keeping score at home, here’s some of the latest guesses:

—Apple will announce a Tablet, and it will come with a Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) chip, confirming that Apple has chosen Verizon Wireless as its partner, according to Northeast Securities analyst Ashok Kumar. [TheStreet.com]

—Apple is still holding secret negotiations in New York with leading U.S. book publishers for its e-reader strategy, reports The Bookseller. HarperCollins is the only named publisher involved, but all six major U.S. publishers are likely talking with Apple (NSDQ: AAPL). AllThingsD says Time Inc. (NYSE: TWX) won’t be on the tablet. [9to5Mac.com]

—If Verizon doesn’t end up with the Tablet, then surely it will get an iPhone 4G starting in June 2011. Canaccord Adams analyst Peter MisekIn is expecting two surprises during the event. In addition to the tablet, Apple will unveil iPhone OS 4.0 and the new iPhone 4G on Verizon. [Barron’s]

—Just when you get tired about reading about Apple rumors, there’s commentary to keep you going about how “every tech news site the story is the same. Apple, Apple, Apple.” TechCrunch writes in a post entitled “Anticipating the Apple Tablet: When journalism becomes fanfiction” that “most of it reams of gushing speculation over the alleged tablet that the company is allegedly launching.” [TechCrunch]

—If you think any of these rumors are far-fetched, just check out Gizmodo’s list of the “five dumbest Apple Tablet rumors.” [Gizmodo]

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and Google’s rivalry may be hitting a new high as reports roll in that the iPhone-maker may be talking to Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) about replacing Google (NSDQ: GOOG) with Bing as the default search engine on the popular smartphone.

BusinessWeek reports that the talks have been under way for weeks, according to two unnamed sources. The tensions may signal that Apple and Google’s once strong relationship may be deteriorating. Not long ago, Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt held a seat on Apple’s board, but since then, Google has become more competitive in the mobile-phone space by coming out with the Nexus One, its own phone. Likewise, Apple has rejected multiple Google applications for the iPhone, including Google Voice and Latitude. For Microsoft, the switch would be huge since it’s commonly considered behind in the mobile-search space.

Today, most of the mobile-search traffic in the U.S. is determined by the carriers, which have forged direct relationships with search engine providers. AT&T (NYSE: T) and T-Mobile USA have partnered exclusively with Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), Sprint (NYSE: S) uses Google, and Verizon Wireless has recently started to use Microsoft’s Bing. Google frequently commented on the amount of traffic coming from the iPhone alone. Last month, Microsoft launched its Bing iPhone, app, which received a lot of praise for being good-looking and intuitive.

One of the unnamed sources told BusinessWeek: “Apple and Google know the other is their primary enemy. Microsoft is now a pawn in that battle.” Beyond rejecting Google’s applications, Apple is also working on ways to manage ad placement on its mobile devices, which is a direct threat to Google. Both companies have recently made multi-million dollar purchases in the mobile advertising space. Google has agreed to buy mobile ad network AdMob, and Apple has agreed to purchase Quattro Wireless. Microsoft and Apple are not without their conflicts, however. While Microsoft may not be considered a threat yet, it too has developments underway in the areas of mobile phones and mobile search and advertising.

Both Microsoft and Apple declined to comment on the possible discussions, and the deal is still pending.

Related

• Is Apple Gearing Up For War With Google?

With the popularity of the iPhone and other high-end smartphones, first-person shooters, and graphics-driven games are stealing the spotlight, but New York City-based Snackable Media quietly has created a million-dollar gaming business in 2009 using the most low-tech of technology—text messaging.

Snackable’s CEO Eyeal Yechezkell gave TechCrunch the complete rundown on the business: In 2009, it sold $170 million worth of text-based games, which has jumped from $90 million in 2008 and $30 million in 2007. Snackable dolls out half of the revenues to the carriers, but still has managed to build a profitable company without ever raising any venture capital. Snackable has 100 in New York and Florida.

The games are fairly simple. The most popular, called Predicto, sends players multiple-choice questions, like “Will gas prices rise above $3 this summer?” or Who will win American Idol this season?” Players respond by text for a chance to win $50,000 in prizes. It has more than a million monthly active users, who all pay $9.95 a month. It also has a game based on “Deal Or No Deal,” and “Celebrity Square.”

Some of the 10-year-old company’s success is based on its roots as ad network when it was called Next Web Media. From its beginnings, Snackable knows how to advertise online, and therefore uses the internet to get people to sign up for subscriptions via text message. The approach is much like early ringtone clubs, which got in trouble because consumers did not know they were signing up for subscriptions. At least Snackable requires a double-confirmation to start the subscription.

Will Snackable move into apps, like the millions of other companies? It’s unlikely. “Right now, these applications are just sitting in the App Store and not really advertised. When you start advertising applications, 99 cents might not be a profitable model.”

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), Nokia and Research In Motion are all involved in lawsuits, so why not Motorola (NYSE: MOT), too?

Motorola is asking for a temporary restraining order against David Hartsfield, who left the handset maker in December for Nokia (NYSE: NOK). The Chicago Tribune reports that Hartsfield left Motorola to become VP of Nokia’s global CDMA business. In a filing in Cook County Circuit Court, Motorola claims that the move violated “various agreements,” and that Motorola risked losing competitive information about CDMA strategy and marketing to Nokia. Hartsfield’s new job “inevitably will require him to use and/or disclose Motorola’s trade secret information.”

Sounds a lot like a similar case that was dismissed last year after Motorola filed a suit against Michael Fenger after he left for a position at Apple.

In a statement, Motorola said that it is suing Hartsfield for breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets and that it is “also seeking expedited discovery and preliminary injunction for further restrictions and damages.” In a filing, Hartsfield’s attorney called the accusations “grossly inadequate.” The attorney argued that there’s no threat to Hartsfield sharing sensitive information with Nokia because CDMA is an industry standard, not “secret proprietary information.” The response also said the alleged non-compete clauses referenced by the company were buried in documentation about Hartsfield’s stock options.

San Francisco-based Boku has raised a sizable round of funding totaling $25 million to build a mobile-payments company that they believe can one day compete against financial institutions, like Mastercard, Visa, and even online providers, like Paypal.

The year-old company has partnered with wireless carriers around the world to let people use their cellphones to pay for online virtual goods from social networks, like Facebook and MySpace. Once a user enters their cellphone number, and verifies the charge via text message, the amount appears on a user’s next bill. Even just a week ago, the idea may have sounded less probable, but since then the Red Cross has collected $22 million for its Haiti relief efforts via text messaging, signaling that consumers are ready to start spending by mobile phone.

Investors in the third round include: DAG Ventures, Benchmark Capital, Index Ventures and Khosla Ventures. In total, the company has raised $38 million. In an interview with mocoNews, Ron Hirson, BOKU’s SVP of product and marketing said the money will go towards global expansion: “Right now with 196 carriers, we reach 1.8 billion potential subscribers, but there are 4 billion people worldwide that have cellphones.” Hirson added that more subscribers make them more appealing to more merchants. In doing that, a lot of money will be spent on adding redundancies and technology to their system similar to a bank’s. “We aren’t spending it on marketing or headcount. We are around 50 people, we won’t double by the end of the year,” he said.

The company was born from acquisition. Last year, it raised $13 million to buy both Paymo and MobillCash. Hirson said they have no plans to acquire more companies, however, “if it makes sense to grow, we will consider it, but so far, we are in a pretty strong position with Paymo and MobileCash.” As part of the financing, the company said it will adopt Paymo as its consumer-facing name, but its corporate name will remain Boku. Some of the smaller startups that Boku competes against are Obopay and Zong, among others.

But the promise of hitting it big, is not so much a race against others. One of the major sticking points for the mobile-payments space in general is the carriers. Right now, merchants must pay carriers a fee in order to use the phone as a payment method. Hirson said the fee can range between 20 and 50 percent of the retail price. After that, Boku also takes a cut (which Hrison says is in the single digits). When a consumer is considering buying virtual goods in an online game, like tokens or new weapons, the fee is not a deal-breaker considering the convenience of paying with a cellphone. But when you consider other spaces, like digital goods (MP3s, videos) or physical goods (for instance, anything on Amazon.com), taking a 50 percent cut makes the business model impossible.

Hrison said it’s their intention to move into more markets, and he sees carriers eventually lowering their rates. “The carriers are definitely coming down, but unevenly globally. Right now, some countries are 10 percent, but others are still getting there. If this proves to be a viable channel, carriers will see it as a way to make more money and will open up to more markets if they lower their fees.”

Based on fees and the general comfort-level of subscribers to buy using the phone, the opportunity is greater outside the U.S. Currently, Boku’s revenues are basically split with a third coming from the U.S., a third from Europe and a third in Asia. “Depending on who you talk to, some of us are surprised as a much is coming from the U.S. It’s interesting to see where it’s coming from.”

Related

• Boku Upgrades Mobile Payments Platform; Adds 12 New Publisher Partners
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Donations by text message have now exceeded $22 million to the Red Cross alone for the Haiti earthquake relief effort.

Update: Tallies are being kept by two primary organizations, both Denver-based mGive and Bellevue, Wash.-based Mobile Giving Foundation, which offer competing services to various non-profits. Together, they are helping more than a dozen organizations, including the Red Cross, The Salvation Army, UNICEF, the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund and World Vision, raise funds for Haiti.

A comprehensive number for how much money has been raised to date—across all the organizations—is not readily available, but mGive said today that the Red Cross campaign alone has raised $22 million. That easily makes it the largest campaign that mGive has ever administered. Last year, it raised a total of $1.25 million via text message, and the largest single campaign was the Keep a Child Alive campaign, which raised $450,000 to support services to children and families whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India.

While the figures are impressive, the donations continue growing at an increasing rate as additional short codes become available. The Red Cross became one of the first organizations on Jan. 12 to start getting the word out with the help of the U.S. State Department. A list of some of the texting campaigns are available at the end of the post.

One problem with using cellphones is that it takes awhile for the money to get from the carriers to the people in need. However, given the dire circumstances in Haiti, a handful of carriers, including Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA, said they will pass along the money as soon as possible. In a statement today, T-Mobile said: “Recognizing the severity of the situation in Haiti and the need to make funds donated via text message by our customers available as quickly as possible, T-Mobile is speeding up the process to pass along these donations. We plan to deliver funds generously donated by T-Mobile customers this week.”

Meanwhile, Verizon Wireless said it has already transmitted nearly $3 million to the American Red Cross, on behalf of their customers. The company said it would continue to advance funds pledged by customers to the Red Cross, which is “outside normal operation procedures.”

Here’s a staggering list of U.S. organizations offering mobile giving campaigns:

—On behalf of the American Red Cross: Text the word “Haiti” to 90999 to donate $10.

—On behalf of the Yéle Foundation (founded by Wyclef Jean): Text the word “Yele” to 501501 to donate $5; Text the word “Yele10” or “YeleTen” to 501501 to donate $10.

—On behalf of The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund: Text the word “QUAKE” to 20222 to donate $10.

—On behalf of the Clinton Foundation Haiti Relief Fund: Text the word “Haiti”  to 20222 to donate $10.

—On behalf of the Salvation Army: Text the word “Haiti” to 52000 to donate $10.

—On behalf of UNICEF: Text the word “Hope10” or “UNICEF” to 20222 to donate $10.

—On behalf of the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB): Text the word “Haiti” to 40579 to donate $10.

—On behalf of Save the Children Federation: Text the word “Save” or “Safe” to 20222 to donate $10.

—On behalf of World Vision: Text the word “Give” or “World” to 20222 to donate $10.

—On behalf of the International Medical Corps: Text the word “Haiti” to 85944 to donate $10.

—On behalf of the International Rescue Committee: Text the word “Haiti” to 25383 to donate $5.

—On behalf of Oxfam America: Text the word “Oxfam” to 25383 to donate $10.

—On behalf of Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere: Text the word “PP” to 25383 to donate $10.

—On behalf of Americares: Text the word “Americares” to 25383 to donate $10.

—On behalf of Habitat for Humanity: Text the word “Habitat” to 25383 to donate $10.

—On behalf of the MTV telethon: Text the word “Give” to 25383 to donate $10.

—On behalf of the American Jewish World Service: Text the word “AJWS” to 25383 to donate $10.

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While Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is already dropping the price of some of its Nexus One devices by $100, others are hoping sell them for much more on eBay.

Google has now change the pricing options of the Nexus One. For a completely unattached, unlocked version, it remains $529, but for T-Mobile customers who are eligible for a phone upgrade the price has dropped to $279 from $379. And, for those signing up for new two-year T-Mobile contracts, it costs $179. Google explained the reason behind the change to PhoneScoop.com: “Previously there were two price points for those fully eligible for T-Mobile upgrades. Those without data plans were paying $279 for the Nexus One, and those with data plans were being charged $379. We worked with T-Mobile and are now able to offer the higher upgrade discount to all existing fully eligible T-Mobile subscribers.”

Meanwhile, eBay (NSDQ: EBAY) is flooded with listings for the Nexus One, who are perhaps overly optimistic that they can resell the phone for between $300 to $1,000, BusinessWeek reports. Likely, the second-hand market is being flooded by all those phone Google gave to its employees over the holidays.

Boost Mobile may offer discounted prepaid wireless plans, but the company is not cutting any corners when it comes to raising brand awareness.

The Sprint (NYSE: S) division will secure its first-ever Super Bowl commercial this year, featuring some of the 1985 Chicago Bears, including former football players Jim McMahon, Willie Gault and Mike Singletary. The trio ill re-create their famous “Super Bowl Shuffle” rap song and video, which first appeared in 1985 when the Bears won Super Bowl XX, according to the WSJ. “Prepaid is no longer living in the shadow of contract plans. Choosing prepaid is really mainstream. That is a big shift, and the economy was a catalyst for that,” said Bob Stohrer, Sprint’s VP of marketing for the prepaid group.

Sprint obviously feels like it must spend a lot of money on getting that message out. It declined to say how much it was spending on the ad, but media buyers are estimating that an ad will cost between $2.5 million and $2.9 million for 30 seconds. The spot is expected to run in the first quarter of the game on Feb. 7. In general, Boost has been advertising heavily, and in the first nine months of 2009 spent $66.3 million on marketing, or more than double what it spent a year earlier, according to TNS Media Intelligence, an ad-tracking company.

At CES earlier this month, Boost Mobile revealed that it was expanding its popular $50 ‘Monthly Unlimited’ plan on Jan. 13 to the CDMA network. Previously, Boost operated on Sprint’s Nextel network. The launch includes three handsets: Kyocera’s Sanyo Mirro SCP3810; Sanyo Incognito SCP6760, and the BlackBerry Curve 8330 (which will cost $60 a month). There will be no contracts. Typically, Sprint’s recently purchased Virgin Mobile (NYSE: VM) division operated on the CDMA network, while Boost operated on the Nextel network. However, going forward, those two divisions are likely to be divided by demographics, not network technology.

Over the next couple of weeks, the financial results of handset-makers are expected to show that there’s an increasing global demand for cellphones for the first time since the recession.

Based on a Reuters poll, analysts are estimating that in 2010 the cellphone market will grow by 9.3 percent: “It will be the first quarter of growth since third quarter 2008 and it should formally signal the end of the global handset recession,” Strategy Analytics’ Neil Mawston told Reuters (NYSE: TRI).

The next two weeks will be an indication on how well things are going: Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) will report its financial results on Jan 22., Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) will report on Jan 25; LG (SEO: 066570) on Jan. 27; Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and Motorola (NYSE: MOT) on Jan 28 and Samsung on Jan. 29.

Here’s a snapshot of expectations based on the Reuters poll:

—HTC: Already, the Taiwanese-based HTC, which makes both Windows Mobile and Android smartphones, reported Q4 results on Jan 6, which were weaker than expected. Pressure on smartphone prices were listed as one reason.

—Nokia: The largest handset maker in the world is expected to report a 27 percent drop in Q4 earnings per share, hurt by the recession, according to the Reuters poll.

—Sony Ericsson: The struggling joint venture is expected to report a steep loss for the quarter.

—Motorola: Is expected to report earnings per share rising to 7 cents a share from 1 cent a share in the previous quarter based on new handset releases. Surprisingly, that would be the highest level since it benefited from the Razr phone model.

—Apple: Analysts expect the company to sell up to 9 million iPhones in the December quarter, but question what will keep the momentum going for the company. 

—Samsung: The South Korean handset maker is likely to report about a 7 percent operating profit margin in its telecom business, down from 10 percent in the third quarter. “The key in 2010 will be how to respond to Apple’s dominance in the smartphone market,” said James Song, an analyst at Daewoo Securities.

—LG: The other South Korean handset maker is expected to see its operating profit margin drop to around 2 percent in Q4 from 8.8 percent in Q3, weighed down by costs associated with beefing up its smartphone business. LG already said it sold about 33 million mobile phones in the October to December period versus 25.7 million handsets a year earlier.

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has started sending out invitations, announcing a 10 a.m., Jan. 27 press event at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

The paint-spattered invitation provides only a hint at what it could be about. It reads: “Come see our latest creation.” If the rumors are correct, this could be the long-awaited unveiling of an Apple Tablet, iSlate, or some sort of touch-enabled computing device. Apple has repeatedly declined to comment, so we’ll just have to wait nine days to find out.

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