Anger Boils Over at Motricity as Layoffs Loom

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – If there isn’t a full-scale rebellion going on at Motricity yet, there could be soon as the mobile content applications developer gears for a huge round of layoffs.

Our story Friday night about the cutting of between 100-200 employees (from 650 or so) at the Durham-based company triggered a rash of responses to WRAL Local Tech Wire. Many were from angry employees, such as one person who wrote “Thanks for telling the truth about us.”

But the most anger and hard feelings erupted on a blog sites where people professing to be current or ex Motricity workers vented toward Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ryan Wuerch.

Blog and news sites all over the Web (including the Post Intelligencer in Seattle where the Motricity headquarters could be moved) picked up the LTW story.

Some of the most intense reaction LTW received regarded whether Wuerch is a co-founder of the company. Several folks claimed he only brokered the finances that led to the merger between Pinpoint Networks (launched in Durham) and PowerbyHand, which launched in Tennessee.

We’ll not repeat here some of the comments made on the Motricity blog. But it’s painfully clear that below the skin of a company which has been widely touted as a sterling Triangle tech success story there is a burning fever.