Motricity Acquires Ca.-Based Interactive, Marketing Solutions Firm

, a provider of wireless applications and mobile content, is expanding its reach by going after so-called "off-deck" interactive content.

Off-deck is a reference to Internet content that is being increasingly made available to users of mobile devices - the market in which Motricity has focused its efforts.

The Durham-based company, which closed earlier this year on $40 million in venture capital, said Monday morning that it has acquired Los Angeles-based GoldPocket Wireless. Financial terms were not disclosed.

GoldPocket Wireless is a developer of interactivity and marketing solutions. It has been involved with mobile campaigns for such television shows as "The Apprentice", "Rock the Vote" and "CSI New York." Clients include NBC, CNN, CBS, BET and Bravo.

For example, in May, GoldPocket worked with "The Apprentice" to offer an on-air vote contest via text messaging through wireless devices or online. The voting results were posted later in the program.

GoldPocket's mobile marketing campaign manager applications have been used by 45 media companies.

With the deal, Motricity, which is privately held and employs some 250 people, laid claim to being the "most complete" supplier of mobile, or on-deck, and off-deck content solutions as a result of the deal.

"This is a tremendous acquisition for Motricity for three key reasons," said Ryan Wuerch, chairman and chief executive officer of Motricity, in a statement. "First, GoldPocket extends our relationships in the media segment with a phenomenal customer base that includes giants like NBC, CBS, Turner and Fox. This is a perfect complement to our existing mobile operator and media customers such as Cingular, Alltel, Sprint, Leap, BET and others.

"GoldPocket's best of breed messaging and mobile marketing campaign solutions fit extremely well with our existing Fuel (application) portfolio, enabling us to continue to expand and deepen our relationships with customers," he added.

"Finally, this acquisition positions Motricity as the leading player in the off-deck market, which we believe will experience explosive growth in the coming years to the benefit of both our mobile operator and media customers."

GoldPocket provides applications for creation, management, delivery and billing of mobile content.

"For the past six years, we've been focused on innovating and building the industry's most robust platform that is able to withstand high-performance environments that are inherent in the real-time television world," said Steve Leonard, CEO of GoldPocket, in a statement. "We are very excited to be part of Motricity, a company that shares our same vision and drive. Through our experience and relationships across various segments, we offer the industry's best combination of real-world experiences and technology. This is a great advantage, as we know from experience that our customers want to work with a proven vendor who can offer a complete solution resulting in a fast, reliable, successful offering to their audiences."

GoldPocket wireless was founded in 2000 as Moeo Inc. and touted itself as one of the first mobile marketing companies. It was acquired by GoldPocket Interactive in August of 2002.

Like Motricity, GoldPocket has also developed tools for mobile "storefronts" and wireless content gateways.