Liberty Media buys Levin’s Useful Networks

Mobliss co-founder Brian Levin has spun off another startup, selling a Denver-area location-based services outfit to Liberty Media Corp.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Liberty Media subsidiary TruePosition Inc. acquired Useful Networks, a developer of mobile location technology and applications. Both Liberty and Useful Networks are Denver-area companies.
“I think they’re a great fit for what we’re trying to do” in creating consumer-targeted applications, Levin said. “Being part of the Liberty family is about as fantastic as it gets from a media perspective.”
Levin co-founded Useful Networks with David Hose, the former founder of SignalSoft and executive for Openwave Systems Inc., which acquired the startup, and Brian Voigt, a fellow SignalSoft/Openwave alum.
Useful Networks will continue developing its location technology, Levin said, and focus on consumer-targeted applications such as local search, pet-tracking, social networking and advertising-related offerings. And the company will work to address growing concerns in the space regarding consumer privacy and security issues.
“We really think the time of location-based services is here,” said Levin. “It’s going to be a lot bigger than people think. But it’s going to have a lot of headaches.”
Levin sold mobile content company Mobliss to Index Corp., a Japanese firm, for $15 million in 2004.