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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
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.
You got it wrong, his (right) palm is a nerd's best friend!
"When in doubt, use brute force." Ken Thompson
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
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"!
Not how I use it
which is totally what she said
Wonder how they will sell more ink to Palm customers?
But who would want to, when they are covered with hair?
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
Great - does this mean we'll have to make all our calls using RPN?
1234 555 212 1+ DIAL
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
Windows Mobile
functional.
Does not compute.
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.
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
You want an apartment in a hot miserable place?
... 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.
Hey, I'm left handed you insensitive clod!
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.
You must be a Microsoft fan with your in depth knowledge of Antitrust law.
Just because two companies compete, does not mean they can not merge. You may have the most ignorant take on antitrust law I have ever seen. But why waste time reading up on something you don't understand, much better to just talk rubbish.
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.
The Be OS folks ended up working for PalmSource when Palm did the PalmOne / PalmSource split. PalmSource then tried to make OS 6, and then Access bought Palmsource. I don't know what happened to the patents for Be, but the people at least went down the PalmSource path....
They're going to revive BeOS!
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
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.
It isn't hot or miserable if you have lots of money (to afford AC, among other things) and you're male!
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
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.
miserable for trafficked women who wind up there and forced to service a couple dozen or more clients per day, condom or not at the customer's option. And if you catch it, HIV is a deportable offense too.
I broke my right arm last year and I found that the left hand is surprisingly versatile.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
CLUEBAT: you are permitted to buy a competitor. What you cannot do is use a dominant market position to prevent new competitors from entering the market (seeing as there is not monopoly in the mobile phone market HP/Palm may do as they please).
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Or you could teach me... but instead you just talk crap. Please explain. I bet you won't, and I want to lose that bet.
Loads and loads of "famous maker" refurbished smart phones.
Palm doesn't own it... any why bother, when Haiku exists.
Most of the BeOS peolpe have moved on... several ended up back at Palm, some at Apple, but many ended up at Google working on Android, etc.
BeOS is history... these days it's much better to just use Haiku if you want an open source BeOS.
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..
A merger would generally only be prevented under anti-trust if it would create a monopoly. As HP and Palm are both relatively minor players in the market, that's not an issue here.
Pre has great exchange support-it can even handle multiple accounts, so yes, I would say it's a good organizer. And WebOS doesn't crash so bad that it requires a wipe and reinstall every other week so I'd say it's got your Windows Mobile phone beaten.
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
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).
How does that contradict anything the the parent post said?
There are no tiger attacks in my area and it's all because this rock I'm holding keeps the tigers away.
HAHAHAHAHAHA. Oh that's good. I've tried all three phones (30day full-blown testdrives).
I started out loving the Pre back when it first came out on Sprint on June 6 of last year. Yup, I waited in line. I took it back after 30 days because the Sprint service sucked.
I got an iPod touch in October and that started my love of the all things Apple.
I waited diligently until the Pre Plus came out on Verizon in January. Oh how I missed it. It was nice, felt good in my hand, but it was slow. Slower than I remember. Sluggish compared to the iPod Touch. It went back. The kicker? The $10.95 Verizon wanted to charge me for VZ Navigator. Fuckers.
So I tried out an iPhone for a month, and compared it's service to my Palm Treo 700p on Verizon. The Verizon EDVO service smoked AT&T three ways til Sunday (where I live anyway), so the iPhone went back.
Now I have a Droid. I have the tethering I need, the service and coverage I need. But the phone sucks. It's like a high-school robotics project compared to the simple elegance of the Roomba when placed against the iPhone. It can't even compare to the smooth simplicity and usability of the Palm Pre (Especially the Exchange and calendaring support).
Jesus Christ, I can't even plug the damn thing into my laptop without the touch screen going all wonky on me - the Moto Droid is a leaky, noisy, EMI-ridden POS. It's the first cellphone I've ever had that causes my clock radio to scream in protest at the interference.
It's gonna be double winner this way.
That is what they mean by double down!
They are major players in the palm computing realm. Minor in phone business.
It's a shame that the law is limited to the creation of a monopoly when the clear problem with our current 'markets' (if you can call them that, lol) is the collusion of the oligopolies. This move reinforces the move to lesser competition and all the maladies that come with it.
I suppose the law should be rewritten to be applicable when a specific total market share is controlled by a specific low number of companies -- and one company of large share buys another of large share.
-----
I guess I had assumed anti-trust laws were written more clearly and protectively. I guess I was wrong... the lawyers always find a way, I guess.
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.
Im just saying it doesnt make sense to pay 1.2 billion for a company that cannot pull its own weight which is even less than that.
Where is the sense in that?
NO SIG
I have to say, I don't see the synergy. But then I'm not Carly Fiorino. If I was, I'd probably see it even if it wasn't there.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
It feels like someone else is doing it.
Ermm, so I heard.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
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.