Motive, Inc. (previously Motive Communications) was a software manufacturer founded in May 1997 and headquartered in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

. On June 17, 2008,

Alcatel-Lucent Alcatel–Lucent S.A. () was a French–American global telecommunications equipment company, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. It was formed in 2006 by the merger of France-based Alcatel and U.S.-based Lucent, the latter being a su ...

announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Motive Inc. through a cash tender offer for all outstanding Motive shares at a price of US$2.23 per share, representing a value of approximately $67.8 million.

Products

Companies worldwide used Motive software in their online services. Motive-powered e-service networks were being used in the online economy by companies as diverse as

Compaq Compaq Computer Corporation (sometimes abbreviated to CQ prior to a 2007 rebranding) was an American information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced ...

Dell Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies. Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data ...

, EDS, Gateway,

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

Intuit Intuit Inc. is an American business software company that specializes in financial software. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and the CEO is Sasan Goodarzi. Intuit's products include the tax preparation application Tu ...

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Merrill Lynch Merrill (officially Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated), previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investment bank ...

, Norwest,

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, Peregrine, and

Target Target may refer to: Physical items * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artillery, fi ...

. The acquisition extended Alcatel-Lucent and Motive's profitable three-year partnership. Both companies developed and sold remote management software for automating the installation, setup, and maintenance of residential gateways for home networking. There were already more than 40 joint customers amongst Alcatel-Lucent and Motive, including

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

Verizon Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas in ...

, BT,

Vodafone Portugal Vodafone Portugal – Comunicações Pessoais, S.A., a full subsidiary of the Vodafone Group, is the second mobile operator in Portugal, both chronologically and in market share (34% in 2006). Its competitors are NOS and Meo. History As Tel ...

, and

Swisscom Swisscom AG is a major telecommunications provider in Switzerland. Its headquarters are located in Ittigen near Bern. The Swiss government owns 51.0 percent of Swisscom AG. According to its own published data, Swisscom holds a market share of 56 ...

Timeline

May 1997: Company founded by Scott Harmon, Scott Abel, Mike Maples Jr, Brian Vetter, Tom Bereiter July, 1998: Releases its first product, signs

Hewlett-Packard Co. The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

as its first major customer. Dec, 1999: Spins off all.com 2000–2003: Acquires three other Austin companies (Ventix, Question.com, BroadJump); merges with All.com. June 25, 2004: Initial public offering; shares rise 1.5 percent to $10.15. Oct. 27, 2005: Restates earnings for first and second quarters of 2005; cuts one-third of work force. Nov. 14, 2005: Announces informal SEC inquiry into restatement of results (linked to revenue from resellers) and stock sales by certain executives. Jan. 20, 2006: Paul Baker resigns as chief financial officer. Jan. 23, 2006: Receives extension to report fourth-quarter results. Feb. 21, 2006: Chairman and CEO Scott Harmon resigns. Apr. 10, 2006: Motive delisted by

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

. Oct. 24, 2006: Mike Fitzpatrick named CFO. Jan. 16, 2007: Receives a cash infusion from Elion, a telecommunications provider in

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

. Apr. 12, 2007: SEC inquiry becomes a formal investigation. June 17, 2008:

announces intent to acquire Motive at $2.23 per share.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official website
– archived October 2005 Companies based in Austin, Texas Companies established in 1997