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HP To Buy Palm For $1.2 Billion
necro81 writes "Palm, Inc., which has struggled in recent months after making a splash with its Pre smartphone, will be bought by HP, the world's largest computer maker. The deal has been approved by both companies' boards, and should be wrapped up this summer. HP will get Palm for about $5.70/share (about 20% above today's closing price), or about $1.2 billion. That's a pretty good deal, considering that in the months following the launch of the Pre on Sprint's network, Palm's share price topped $16. But marketing blunders hindered the Pre's more widespread adoption on other carriers, and the company's very existence has recently seemed in doubt."
Finally a decent OS to run on the SuperDomes!
Average Intelligence is a Scary Thing
Most of us can buy our palms for nothing.
From a geek's / nerd's point of view, the price is too high. Palms are worth near to nothing to geeks.
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
Great - does this mean we'll have to make all our calls using RPN?
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I know it's supposed to be more logical, but it just seems so confusing...
When you have nothing left to burn you must set yourself on fire
If the direction the quality of HP printers is heading is any indication, say goodbye to Palm.
They used to be the best. Now, I wouldn't touch one.
This ain't rocket surgery.
Smart move if HP is thinking about getting back into the phone business. They probably threw the idea around and came to the conclusion that they'd be another also-ran if they just pushed Android/WP7 sets (Especially since thats the move Dell is making)
As a Pre owner I would be glad to see WebOS on some adequate hardware, and in a tablet form as well.
I wondered why at first, but then figured out that HP can let Palm and its products die completely, while making money with the patents alone.
Maybe HP Can put out some better hardware with Android OS now.....
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
As a Pre owner, I find this a relief. I was worried Palm was just going to fade away.
And I'm glad the buyer has no existing smartphone business, so WebOS will be its sole platform.
Your god may be dead, but mine aren't!
HP, the world's largest computer maker.
HP are still that big? I haven't seen one of their products in years.
I care not for your karma and your mod points.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
It's amazing the effect that one creepy girl can have on a share price.
Seriously. That last one is the worst. Using a phone is like the transmigration of souls?
Boo. In fairness, it's not the girl's fault at all.
By "marketing blunders", do they mean Palm's "The Most Pale Woman in the World" campaign? Because I've gotta say, she really didn't sell me on a Palm, or anything else.
She looked more like an extra from the Lord of the Rings (generic elf maiden #38) than a spokesmodel for a technical product.
John
Seems to me that the Pre made more of a splash by requiring people to give up their SSN to buy it, than it did in the market. Am I off base here? I don't really remember seeing anything in the news about what a smashing success the Pre was, but I suppose I may have just forgotten...
They were in the phone business, but lacked a compelling product. The press release says that buying Palm gives them what they need to compete.
Release loads of nice phones with WebOS, lots of different form factors and at a good price.
WebOS is a great OS, it is the hardware that sucks at the moment.
Since HP already own 3COM, who spun off Palm in 2000 (with a first day valuation of something like 30 times what they are paying for it today), one could almost say that Palm is being bought back after 10 (not so happy) years as an independent company.
..the creepy Canadian chick from the commercials?
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
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If IBM were to buy HP+Palm, it would be the ultimate congolmerate of once-great companies.
A1 to Buy Canola for $1.4 billion
Set your phasers on "funky"!
Wonder how they will sell more ink to Palm customers?
Think about it, HP isn't run by some CEO that can reject to have World's de facto plugin just because he personally hates it.
Flash+Firefox core+open OS that does do everything a laptop would do would be the true killer thing. It isn't coming from a no name company either, it is HP who has real big prestige both at home and enterprise.
HP (in the form of Compaq) created the smartphone market.
They're still one of the largest WinMo phone manufacturers.
I guess the next version of the pre will be called the jornada palm :-)
Facepalm
Hmm. I wonder if HP will be willing to release the BE OS sourcecode. The guys at the Haiku project are doing a fantastic job, and while a lot of work is done on the project, I think that if HP would release the code once it completes its acquisiton of Palm, it would be of great help to them.
Note: Be Inc was acquired by Palm
HP is starting to challenge Computer Associates as being THE place where good technology goes to die.
Wow. $1.2B for what? A list of customers that have no taste?
Great - does this mean we'll have to make all our calls using RPN?
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I know it's supposed to be more logical, but it just seems so confusing...
I had a HP 48GX calculators with RPN for years when it broke down I bought a HP 50G and just assumed it had RPN. For a while after I fired it up for the first time I was a afraid I had wasted my money until I figured out that you can change the thing from the default infix mode to RPN. I've gotten so used to RPN that I can hardly use infix calculators any more.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
I really liked my Tungsten E as an organizer, before it started acting up (cheap crummy power switch). Nobody seems to know, or care, if the Pre is a good organizer. The iPhone definitely isn't. I'm currently on Windows Mobile, which is at least functional.
Palm's software and hardware are way overmatched by Apple and the Droids.
HP will have to come out with something pretty spectacular to get their money back on this.
The article about requiring a SSN was terribly misleading.
The fact is that at launch, the Palm Pre was only available on Sprint with a 2 year contract. Sprint generally requires a SSN to do a credit check before you can sign up. So it's really Sprint's fault, not Palm.
Additionally, you can forgo the credit check with a refundable cash deposit -- so the whole thing was an overreaction by some paranoid techies.
Now smashing success, the Pre was not. It has critical acclaim because it does a number of things like multitasking really well*, but it's been selling poorly in competition with the iPhone and Android phones.
* Yes, the upcoming iPhone does multitasking now, but nowhere near as well as WebOS. Also, notifications for SMS, email, etc, are unintrusive and way better than the iPhone.
Now that Carly Fiorina isn't around to fuck HP any longer, it's now girlfriend is it's Palm.
You mean the fact that Sprint does a credit check before you sign a contract on any phone? And that it didn't make a splash anywhere except for being sensationalized on /.?
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/06/21/2359255/SSN-Required-To-Buy-Palm-Pre?from=rss
HP won't pull an Oracle - ruin Palm the way Oracle has ruined Sun.
It makes no sense. The price makes no sense, the OS makes no sense for HP/CQ, moving into pervasive computing through palmos makes no freaking sense.
New appartment in dubai, now that makes sense.
(This is just an opinion, not an acusation)
NO SIG
This is just AOL/Time Warner all over again. Their both just trying to extend their inevitable death spiral. It reminds be of that Disney movie "Black Hole" They're just stuck there on the edge... doomed. Waiting for that crazy robot guy to smash the ship and send them spiraling in.
Perhaps their new name should be HPalm3Compaq.
HP BOUGHT Palm. Shares of PALM are no longer traded on the NASDAQ as of market close today. If you were short, you owe a lot of money...
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
I guess it was the 'shirts' that decided Palm's handwriting recognition was 'too valuable' to license...idiots. The time for using that had seemed passed, and nowdays with touch-screen oriented smartphones, it sounds like a good idea, again.
This sounds silly; but I STILL have a couple of Palm 5's around here. When I was a security guard, I could actually watch a line for activity, while writing on the Palm, without worrying about it being readable. I *SO* prefer it to the number-pad texting; it's so much faster and easy to learn.
Let's hope of all the treasures HP has found and lost, that the handwriting program is something they feel like licensing, cheaply, because it's darned useful, not hiding, because "they want to make all their money back". (This never happens, introducing scarcity: people work around it, instead).
So....GO HP!
--- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
HP makes palm devices.
Palm makes palm devices.
They COMPETE.
-----------
Seriously... How does this junk fly without the greasing of political pockets?
But don't worry... some distraction of an explanation will come up... some B.S. to lure you away from the main point that these two companies compete directly and now they won't be.
If they can consolidate, that's fine. But then I want my government to set maximum pricing, and set it nice and low so as to protect me from olig/monopoly gouging.
... They probably threw the idea around and came to the conclusion that they'd be another also-ran if they just pushed Android/WP7 sets (Especially since thats the move Dell is making) ...
Android also has a new business risk since it is a Google brand. When making that build-or-buy decision you want your partner to be non-controversial, you don't want your company to be collateral damage in another company's fight with the Chinese government. Fair or not, just or not, Google is a riskier partner than they used to be. This is not the only factor to consider but it must have been part of the Android decision.
--
Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN
I would have bought them, but I wasn't willing to go anywhere near that high. Probably $1.2K would have been my offer, oh well.
Watch out, Microsoft employees! Flying chair hazard!
"I like systems, their application excepted", George Sand (French)
Fuck off, they didn't start anything. They brought the big guns to the table with the first Compaq iPaq, but there were plenty of other WinMo phones release at exactly the same time, and they weren't the first smartphones.
Does my memory fail me, or is HP the company that couldn't even do a decent job of selling iPods, the handheld-electronics equivalent of crack-covered pancakes?
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
They're going to revive BeOS!
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
TO SABOTAGE PALM
the new os from blackberry may be another nail in the coffin for palm
Fuck off, they didn't start anything.
You might want to ask your doc to up your meds ...
At least they work better than Lexmarks under Linux.
Do not meddle in the affairs of geeks for they are subtle and quick to anger
HP will run what's left of Palm right into the ground. It will be just like Microsoft's acquisition of Danger.
I wonder if they will open source BeOS?
HP has finally realized that in addition to being in competition with Cisco/VMWare/EMC in the datacenter, they're also in competition with Apple in the consumer gadgetry department. This probably comes out of Apple passing Microsoft on the S&P 500 last week. This is actually a good thing. $1.2B isn't a big deal to get Palm's patent portfolio and add some phones to their product list as well.
It also means they have no intention of going down with the WinTel ship. They're going to make a fight of it.
I hope they come out with a decent ARM based Android slate. I won't be buying that Intel Atom+Windows 7 version.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Imagine if they launched their campaign with this commercial instead. Palm's life would be SOOOO different.
Twelve-and-three-quarter inches. Unyielding. This wand belonged to Bellatrix Lestrange.
Current Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein is "expected to remain with the company," though it's not said in what capacity.
There is the second floor restroom that needs cleaning.
Loads and loads of "famous maker" refurbished smart phones.
Well I guess he needs some relief, that Hermoine chick is hawt!
The Palm Tungsten and closely-allied models are absolutely perfect for my purposes. I make photographs and graphics...which I can show to potential customers. I constantly jot notes to myself, and I can write on the thing. My girlfriend originally bought it for me because when I quit smoking, I'd tear bits off her package to scribble on. It's got a keyboard accessory with real-sized keys that I can type on (along with Microsoft Office). It displays e-books amazingly well considering its small size. There's room for plenty of music. With its updated battery and an external charger that cost dick-all it's good for more hours of operation than you can possibly use. You could easily type notes from morning to lunch, charge at lunch and then go for the whole afternoon (and the infrared keyboard is its most power-hungry application). It plays movies and has WiFi through an optional card. It syncs with Outlook. It keeps as much contact information and scheduling information as any smart phone, and it communicates with my un-smart phone effectively via Bluetooth. The thing is like a runty, retarded little laptop. It's five years old, it still works like new, and it should have worn out twice by now. It also fits comfortably in a shirt pocket.
If HP wanted to do some serious damage in the current market, they should build on this basic model. Keep the on-screen writing/sketching and other stuff nobody else does anymore. Add a camera, microphone and the ability to address larger-capacity memory cards (my model is limited to 1G cards). I don't know what's possible in an upgraded processor...but do it. These things will never replace a laptop, or maybe even a notebook (though I might argue that), but when more people catch on to what the little buggers can do, there will definitely be a market for them.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
You don't need to go so far away, you only need to look around the corner to find that...
Dear
Say what you will but HP is one of very few that actually fully support Linux.
This is not so true. My coworker has a year-old HP Laserjet that won't work with Linux. These days I avoid them at any cost with all those flimsy plastic builds, but there was a time when Laserjets were solid.
I went to eat some animal crackers and the box said, "Do not eat if seal is broken." I opened the box and sure enough..
I can see it now in the board room. "How are we going to pay for this?" "I believe we are due for another WFR."
Running Linux in case you need to know.
Many Linux corporate servers are running in HP hardware,
Just curious. You obviously know something the rest of us don't.
The charging/usb connection door is somewhat annoying but I have not touched it after the initial setup.
I have the Touchstone charger (highly recommended) and just place the Pre on that and it charges. All other operations, including sync and update I do over the network (wifi at home, cell otherwise)
I just wish that it mechanically was a bit more strong (I have a Pre, not the Pre Plus. Some claim that the Pre Plus has better mechanical build quality)
PS - Not that the quality is bad, it just could be a bit better...
How about our rich Western governments get some backbones and put laws in place on corporations that state the following:
"In any financial year where you make staff redundant because you supposedly cannot afford to pay them, you cannot go buying other companies so that you, in effect, take on more staff."
And while we're on the subject:
"Greedy shitbags like Mark Hearn cannot take a pay bonus in the same year when hundreds of HP staff, including my missus, have been laid off."
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Actually, I think that honor goes to Handspring, a Palm-employee run spinoff that finally wedded a cellphone to a modern PDA (circa 2001).
It's gonna be double winner this way.
That is what they mean by double down!
HP Buying Palm eh? Hmmm... Superior OS/hardware platform. Best GUI and multitasking sytem in the market. Original company can't market its way out of a wet paper sack. Palm's WebOS/Pre makes me feel like an Amiga owner all over again! I'm in! Wonder if I can run UAE on it?! hehe
... that just wouldnt die. Palms occasionally brilliant products and innovations, are completely outdone by the incompetence of their marketing and sales people. Everytime I see a press release from Palm I am surprised they are still around, and its been like this since they got spun off from 3Com.
The morons that ran HP not only spun off the instrument division, but also sold their medical technology and patents to Phillips. That way they could focus on Windows computers and Cannon printers. But the carpetbagger CEO got rich.
Palm was very successful in the 1990's and had good products. What killed them was their arrogance. Instead of developing a Linux-based phone and PDA around 1999 (like many people told them they should), they went off and did their own proprietary stuff and failed miserably.
Part of their arrogance was that they considered themselves "brilliant". Like Apple, much of what went into Palms was invented elsewhere, Palm was just the first to make a really successful product out of it. Like Apple, Palms were also a pain to program, although you wouldn't have known it from their hordes of loyal developers. But you're right: it's marketing that killed Palm and that is saving Apple.