Motorola: Goodbye

When Motorola acquired push email provider Good Technology in November 2006, the company said the deal would “advance its vision of seamless mobility” and “strengthen Motorola as a leading provider of mobility devices.” Well, apparently it did neither because two years later, Motorola (MOT) is a shadow of its former self and it’s selling Good to rival wireless email provider Visto, effectively ending its little foray into push services. Financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed, but it’s likely that Good’s sale price was quite a bit less than the rumored $500 million cash Motorola paid for it.

For Motorola, which is under enormous financial stress these days, the sale of Good will help stem its losses a bit and focus its attention on its struggling mobile handset division. It will also unburden the company of the legal expenses surrounding the patent infringement suit Visto filed against Good in 2006. “Good was either going to fade away or be given to someone,” Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney told The Wall Street Journal. “They get rid of a failed business, take some employees off the books and end a lawsuit.”