Good Grief

Just about 27 months after Motorola's Ed Zander spent $500M to acquire Good Technology in his last ditch effort to "out Blackberry" RIM, Motorola announced that it had reached an agreement to sell off Good to Visto — the mobile messaging company that has consumed huge amounts of venture capital and has changed its business model more times than Elizabeth Taylor changed husbands. Visto, in turn, announced that it would rename itself Good Technology making this strange tale stranger still. (Good Technology's brand had languished under Motorola's stewardship. Visto apparently thinks Good Technology has more brand appeal its own brand name.) While the price that Visto paid wasn't announced speculation is that "peanuts" is close to the right answer. The one saving grace that might come out of this story depends on what, if any, influence the Good Technology's team had on Motorola's most recent "iPhone killer" project (Moto's second attempt at bettering the iPhone). Motorola's stock price is slightly above $3, down from the $22 per share range it was at when it did its deal to acquire Good.