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."

Comments

It's about the patents

[jdastrup]

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.

I wonder why...

[monoqlith]

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.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:A relief...

[TheRaven64]

I was worried Palm was just going to fade away.

Yup, now it's going to enjoy the same level of long term success as the Alpha, OpenVMS, Tru64...

Re:Doomed

[gyrogeerloose]

Say what you will but HP is one of very few that actually fully support Linux

Okay, I'll give them that. I guess I'm mostly dismayed by how far HP has fallen over the years. At one time, a person could count on anything he bought from them to be a good product, probably the best available. Beginning with the Carly Fiorina era, though, it's been all downhill for them. They don't even make all that great built-like-a-brick-shithouse test equipment that they built their reputation on anymore.

Sure it makes sense

[symbolset]

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.

too little, too late:

[UnanimousCoward]

Imagine if they launched their campaign with this commercial instead. Palm's life would be SOOOO different.