There's a new publicly-traded company in Washington state. But it wasn't easy for it to reach that milestone.

Motricity on Thursday night sold five million shares at $10, raising $50 million. When the Bellevue maker of mobile software first filed to go public in January, it said it planned to raise as much as $250 million through a public offering.

But the company -- which has yet to make a profit and has racked up an accumulated deficit of $313 million over the years -- cut its offering price range on Thursday morning signaling that Wall Street wasn't so enthusiastic about the company's prospects.

The real test begins today, with the stock expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol MOTR.

While the completion of the IPO is good news, the lackluster reception for Motricity probably won't instill much confidence for other businesses looking to test the waters. The problems in the IPO market have been well documented here in TechFlash, and the lack of liquidity is causing major concern in the ranks of venture capitalists who need IPOs in order to cash out of companies.

Nonetheless, Motricity marks the first high-tech company in Washington to go public since Seattle biotech Omeros priced shares last October.

More on Motricity in the company's S-1 filing with the SEC, and from this Bloomberg News story which quotes an analyst about the trimming of the IPO price.

Motricity moved its headquarters from North Carolina to Bellevue in 2008 after buying the mobile unit of InfoSpace.

UPDATE: Shares of Motricity dropped in early morning trading, with the stock at $9.73 as of 7:50 a.m.