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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."
The press release makes clear that HP intends to continue with webOS. In the press conference, they say they're intending to go forward with Android and Windows Phone gear as well.
Expect new webOS products (not just phones, but tablets as well).
Say what you will but HP is one of very few that actually fully support Linux. Not long ago I got one of their new multifunction inkjets and it works across the board with Linux (wireless printing, wireless scanning, everything) and I didn't need to do anything special to make it work. Good luck getting that anywhere else.
Their market cap is 125 billion dollars.
That makes the half the size of Apple, but five times Dell's size.
HP are still that big? I haven't seen one of their products in years.
300,000 full-time employees. Market cap $125 Billion. Indexed in the Dow Industrials. S&P 100, etc. In the U.S., second only to IBM in computer hardware sales. Does any of this ring a bell?
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