Palm is Trying to Sell Itself
Is HTC about to buy Palm?
Palm reinvented itself in early 2009 with the launch of its new WebOS operating system and the Palm Pre. Since then, the company has released a few more devices based on WebOS but the company earlier this year revealed that sales were a lot slower than they anticipated. In March, CEO Jon Rubenstein revealed Q4 earnings were under $150 million or less than half of the $305 million that Wall Street was expecting.
Today Bloomberg reports that Palm is putting itself up for sale. Citing three people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg says the company is putting itself on the market and will be actively looking for bids as early as this week. The company is said to be working with Goldman Sachs and Qatalyst Partners to find a buyer. These sources say HTC and Lenovo have both looked at the company and are contemplating offers.
There is speculation that a Palm acquisition could help HTC fight Apple's patent lawsuit. Having been in the smartphone business for a very long time, Palm's intellectual property portfolio is extensive. Gizmodo suggests that the reason Apple and Palm have steered clear of suing the trousers off each other is because they're both infringing on each other, so a legal battle instigated by either party would be pointless. In buying Palm, HTC would acquire the company's portfolio, which, as it turns out, would be a great weapon to have facing Apple.
This time last year, there were reports that Dell was thinking of acquiring Palm. At the time, the rumor mill was saying Dell was looking to get into the smartphone business, so it didn't seem that far fetched. However, Dell announced a cell phone later in the year and Palm went on to release the Pre and the Pixi.
HTC, Lenovo, Palm and Dell refused to comment on the reports. Bloomberg's sources say Dell looked at Palm, though it decided against an offer.
Who would you like to see acquire Palm? Let us know in the comments below!
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I would say RIM. Its better to acquire the competition than fight it.
HTC should buy them for the patent portfolio, walk into court and watch Job's crap himself. Then deliver a dose of poetic justice with a counter-suite.
As the largest shipper of phones worldwide, and still a big presence in the smartphone market, I'd like to see Nokia buy Palm.
Nokia and Symbian seem to always get lost in the news of Android and iPhones despite their still considerable size and clout. With a new OS, talented new team and a portfolio of patents Nokia would be better equipped to win a war against Apple and HTC/Google.
Blackberry maker RIM would also be a good bet for the bidding war over Palm. RIM needs a fresh new OS and better gameplan for the hotly contested smartphone war. And with Microsoft coming in strong in the next couple months (and along with it, some pretty good enterprise support- RIM's strongest area...) RIM may find their already declining sales to drop faster than expected.
HTC buys Palm, then HTC gets bought out by Microsoft, Microsoft wins.Dell is out of the picture, they cant design anything,i saw a prototype device for an upcoming smartphone(crackygeeks.com latest episode),its about as big a a amd 4670.
the most sense would be rim, since they are hoping to get into the consumer space and this could be their way in
the most useful at this time would be HTC, because of the said patents, but that would likely mean lots of axed engineers along with the mandatory axe of management and what nots.
It's not like palm is worth anything nobody cares about their products
The Pre is a dud compared to the competition. Why would anyone want to buy a loser?
July 2010 : RIM aquires Palm.
December 2010 : Dell aquires RIM.
June 2011 : Verizon aquires AT&T.
September 2011 : Dell merges with Verizon.
October 2011 : Following the completion of the merger, Dell/Verizon renames itself Cyberdyne.
March 2012 : Due to the overwhelming demand, Cyberdyne creates a supercomputer to manage all communication products and services.
May 2012 : Skynet is born.
You know the rest.
hmmm... where is Apple??? i bet they will be interested!
Pre is not a dud... It really is a very good phone.. there are some features that are lacking but a large player like HTC could put a new spin on the WebOs platform and apply some of the well designed phones they have and make WebOs blow the skirt off Android.
If HTC did acquire Palm it's very unlikely they would spend much effort on webOS. If you want to see webOS go on it would have to be acquired by a company that wasn't already entrenching themselves with a particular smartphone OS. As previously mentioned that would mean someone like Nokia, Dell if they are planning to go into smartphones, or RIM if they wanted to rework their OS design.
I'd be nice to see RIM buy them out.
Two big companies w/ lots of patents working together could be awesome
Let's jst hope Apple doesn't aquire Palm, or we'l all be looking @ a 2rd gen ipad renamed as iPalm ...
Then deliver a dose of poetic justice with a counter-suite.
You just don't get it do you?
The Pre is a dud compared to the competition. Why would anyone want to buy a loser?
It didn't sell well, but Palm WebOS is a great OS, one of, if not the best phone OS out ATM, that would be a great thing for another company to get, along with the Palm patents and research. If you can make use of it Palm would be a great company to buy out.
Samsung should buy it. They have the money and know how to make a good smartphone great. WebOS will live on.
Nintendo might be interesting, as with Amazon. I'm thinking of companies that have embedded devices, but aren't jacks of all trades.
Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook is trying to buy Palm, renaming it FacePalm
Commodore should buy Palm.
Would this make Palm a prostitute?
July 2010 : RIM aquires Palm.December 2010 : Dell aquires RIM.June 2011 : Verizon aquires AT&T.September 2011 : Dell merges with Verizon.October 2011 : Following the completion of the merger, Dell/Verizon renames itself Cyberdyne.March 2012 : Due to the overwhelming demand, Cyberdyne creates a supercomputer to manage all communication products and services.May 2012 : Skynet is born.You know the rest.
I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords and remind them that they will need loyal ambassadors to help manage the human slaves in their Unobtainium mines.
To stop the lawsuits and help advance WebOS/Android why not have Google purchase Palm? Google tells Apple that if they even think about suing Google's partners they'll sue Apple. This could potentially halt any Apple lawsuits against manufacturers of Android devices.
Also it would allow merging of technologies in WebOS and Android.
The Pre is a dud compared to the competition. Why would anyone want to buy a loser?
Can your smartphone multitask?
Only if it's a Pre or an Android.
Can your smartphone act as a mobile hotspot at no extra charge? Probably not.
i like my palm pre personally. based on linux and open! i have a terminal application right in my phone, no jail breaking for me
Too bad that PALM didn't make BeOS into a free-ware OS, it could have been interesting.
They bought it, stopped it for Desktops and BeOS faded away.