Motorola sells Good Technology to Visto

Motorola agreed to sell its Good Technology division for an undisclosed sum on Tuesday, bringing an end to the company's foray into push services.

Good Technology will be acquired by Visto, a California-based company that provides push e-mail technology to mobile operators, Motorola said in a statement. Details of the deal were not disclosed.

Motorola acquired Good Technology in 2007, part of a plan to compete with rival Research In Motion's popular BlackBerry service and make inroads with enterprise users. But Motorola's handset shipments slipped and the company fell on hard times, posting a US$3.6 billion loss for the last quarter of 2008.

Faced with waning popularity of the Razr cell phone line, Motorola's mobile handset unit has struggled, with fourth-quarter sales dropping to $1.5 billion -- a fall of 51 percent compared to the same period one year earlier.

Last month, Motorola announced plans to lay off 4,000 workers, including 3,000 staff from the handset division. The layoffs, along with cuts of 3,000 workers last year, are part of Motorola's plans to shave $1.5 billion in costs this year.

IDG News Service

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