Apr 12 2010, 03:00 PM, updated 16y ago
Uh, whoa. Bloomberg just reported that Palm is putting itself up for sale and that offers will potentially come in this week. That's pretty wild news, considering CEO Jon Rubinstein was adamant just a few days ago that Palm had a plan to get profitable -- even while his company's stock price went on a buyout-rumor fueled rollercoaster. Bloomberg says that Palm's already retained Goldman Sachs and Qatalyst Partners to find a buyer, with HTC (yes!) and Lenovo both expressing interest -- and Dell's apparently already taken a pass. Naturally none of these parties are saying anything on the record -- we just pinged Palm and they declined comment -- but if this is true, things are about to get wild, and fast. We'll keep you updated, stay tuned.
From Engadget
HTC May Buy Palm to Fight Apple
Moribund Palm is up for sale, says Bloomberg. Who is in the short list of potential bidders? It's not Google, but close enough: HTC. And it makes total sense, because buying Palm could save HTC's ass in the Apple lawsuit.
Bloomberg says that Lenovo may want to buy it too. However, the most interesting bidder is HTC by far. The reason: HTC may find in Palm the patent portfolio it needs to battle Apple's lawsuit.
Apart from Apple and Google, Palm—which currently has a $870.8 million market value—is the only company with a modern smartphone operating system in the market. Palm has a long history in the PDA and smartphone worlds. Their original Palm Pilot—their low-cost Newton wannabe—was a total success back in the 90s, and their Treo smartphones were probably the first nice PDA/phone hybrids. As a result of this long story, Palm owns patents that may become very effective weapons in the war against Apple's omnipotent JesusPhone. Weapons that HTC may use to settle the lawsuit against Apple.
Apple and Palm has threatened to sue each other in the past. Rubinstein, who was at Apple during the development of the iPhone, came to Palm to create a theoretical iPhone killer and save the company from irrelevance. He got a nice phone, but his marketing strategy failed miserably. However, during this time Apple never sued Palm, presumably because Palm has enough patents to sue Apple back and make the legal battle pointless.
Although Palm has plenty of good intellectual property and a great smartphone operating system, their Pre and Pixi phones have been a sales failure. Knowing this, would the Palm Pre and the WebOS survive the sale? Or better said: Can anyone turn WebOS into a real contender in the current smartphone war? Between Google and Apple battling head to head—and Microsoft soon to join the war with Windows Phone Series 7—my gut feeling is that no, WebOS will not survive.
It seems like the only thing that makes sense is buying Palm to snatch some of their patents to use against Apple lawsuits and to improve future phones. Exactly what HTC needs. And maybe Google would like to help a bit here, just to avoid having to indemnify HTC in case Apple destroys them to bits.
From Gizmodo
Would HTC really buy Palm?
So the big shocking news (or non-shocker, depending on your view) is that Palm is making itself available for sale. It's a little too early in the game to jump to wild conclusions but Bloomberg sources say that HTC and Lenovo are both in the mix to make a bid to buy Palm. And though Lenovo has some Android ties, no company has backed Android like HTC. HTC buying Palm would be epically huge in this smartphone world of ours. Epic. -ally. Huge
Think about it. HTC produces stellar hardware for both Android and Windows Mobile. Some could say that HTC is half the reason why Android is so successful and why Windows Mobile is still alive. If HTC suddenly bought Palm, would HTC start building webOS devices as well? Or would they stop manufacturing devices for Android and Windows Mobile and go strictly webOS? Or would nothing happen, and HTC simply let Palm stay Palm and just continue to build for Android and Windows Mobile? There are questions abound and the ramifications would be huge because half of the players in the smartphone space are involved (other half being: Apple, RIM, and Nokia).
And we're not familiar with patent law, but could HTC buy Palm and use Palm's library of patents against Apple in Apple's lawsuit? Ammo for a potential don't sue me because I can sue the pants off you type move? But if Palm's patents are that valuable, wouldn't everyone be interested? There's so many more questions to ask that we can't wait to see this thing develop. The smartphone world as we know it is going to change.
So, would HTC really buy Palm?
From Android Central
We will see how it goes later this year
Added on April 12, 2010, 3:05 pmHow awesome if HTC buys Palm.. There would be WebOs in some phones which is awesome and There would be Palm Pre and Palm Pixi available in Malaysia by Htc
This post has been edited by directdamage: Apr 12 2010, 06:05 PM
Quote
...or maybe HTC update it with the latest hardware available....1ghz processor,amoled screen...waahh..endless wish.
0.0213sec
0.45
5 queries
GZIP Disabled