Motive, Inc (previously Motive Communications) was a provider of service management software for broadband and mobile data services, founded in 1997 and headquartered in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

. The company was acquired by

Alcatel-Lucent Alcatel-Lucent S.A. () was a multinational telecommunications equipment company, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, France. The company focused on Fixed line telephone, fixed, Mobile phone, mobile and telecommunications convergence, ...

in 2008, which was in turn acquired by

Nokia Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...

in 2016. The Motive brand was revived in 2024 by Lumine Group, after it bought Nokia's device management business unit.

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 was an American information technology, information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced some of the first IBM PC compati ...

Dell Dell Inc. is an American technology company that develops, sells, repairs, and supports personal computers (PCs), Server (computing), servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals including printers and webcam ...

, EDS, Gateway,

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...

Intuit Intuit Inc. is an American multinational 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 preparati ...

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Merrill Lynch Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, doing business as Merrill, and previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investm ...

, Norwest,

Oracle An oracle is a person or thing considered to provide insight, wise counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. If done through occultic means, it is a form of divination. Descript ...

, Peregrine, and

Target Target may refer to: Warfare and shooting * 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 artille ...

. 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., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

Verizon Verizon Communications Inc. ( ), is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the ...

, BT,

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

, and

Swisscom Swisscom is a major telecommunications provider in Switzerland. Its headquarters are located in Worblaufen near Bern. The Swiss government owns 51% of Swisscom. According to its own published data, Swisscom holds a market share of 56% for mob ...

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. 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) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

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

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

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

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.

Revival of the brand

In December 2023, Nokia announced that it had reached an agreement to carve out its device management unit (representing the former Motive, Inc. business) and its service management unit (acquired in 2015 from Mformation). The purchaser was Lumine Group, a Toronto-based holder of a portfolio of software businesses in communications and media. The deal, valued at €185million and involving the transfer of around 500 employees, completed in April 2024. Lumine revived the Motive brand for its new stand-alone device management and service management business.

References

{{Reflist

External links

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