Palm finally sinks, acquired by HP for $1.2 billion

[Matthew DeCarlo]

In an unexpected move today, HP announced it would buy ailing handset-maker Palm for $1.2 billion, a 23% premium. The decision has already been approved by the boards of both companies and will give HP a new strength in the mobile computing market -- an unquestionable bonus with tablet-fever on the rise. HP also has a little-known line of phones, which date back to the 2002 merger with Compaq.

"The smartphone market is large, profitable and rapidly growing," said HP vice president and former Palm executive Todd Bradley. He added that "Palm's innovative operating system provides an ideal platform to expand HP's mobility strategy and create a unique HP experience spanning multiple mobile connected devices."

This news comes just after rumors of a potential acquisition by Lenovo or HTC. Palm has been struggling to keep afloat for years, and due to a string of poor decisions (not least marketing), the company has quickly lost all renewed vigor from last year's introduction of its Pre smartphone and webOS platform.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/38764-palm-finally-sinks-acquired-by-hp-for-12-billion.html

 

[SNGX1275]

Now if only this would make my Palm handheld (forget even the model) from about 1999 worth some money...

 

[DarkCobra]

Well goodbye to an old friend I guess. I had a Palm PDA back in the 90's. Those were the glory days of Palm. They sadly just never quite grabbed the foot hold into the Cellular World as they hoped. They had a good product but it was just no match for the Iphone, Blackberry's and Androids.

I don't know what HP can do that Palm didn't do, but I wish all of those associated with Palm nothing but the best and I thank them for a job well done. You have nothing to be ashamed about because you did your best. Thanks for years of very good products.

 

[ET3D]

HP has more money, so can let Palm do what they wanted. Palm did manage to come back with WebOS, but it was too late. It just didn't have the money to push it into the market. HP's back might help.

 

[Julio Franco]

Very, very interesting acquisition. HP is one of only a handful of tech companies that can take Palm's strengths and rework whatever was wrong with them in the first place. A virtually unlimited budget combined with industry know-how that is awfully hard to compete against.

 

[PanicX]

Julio said:
A virtually unlimited budget combined with industry know-how that is awfully hard to compete against.

I think its Palms lack of industry know how that got them in this mess to begin with, or maybe its just lack of industry foresight.

The last Palm I owned was a Treo 650 and I really, really hated it. Which is a bummer because at the time of purchase it was the best smart phone around. But the buggy desktop manager, loose sim card tray (they recalled), and the hideously loud beep in your ear when a call dropped, drove me to the brink. Every day I cursed the thing. Then I got my iPhone and well, maybe I only like the iPhone in comparison to the Treo cuz it has its own problems, but I'm much happier with it.

 

[Tedster]

This actually was a lifesaver for palm. Investors were very worried about losing all their money.

 

[Guest]

LOL!
palm is piece of ****, and hp is even bigger shits creator!
agin LOL!
i hope it will bring down hp and palm out of market completly.

 

[SNGX1275]

HP has more money, so can let Palm do what they wanted. Palm did manage to come back with WebOS, but it was too late. It just didn't have the money to push it into the market. HP's back might help.

With the news of HP delaying their Slate until after the Palm deal is finalized that WebOS thing may come into play. Apparently HP wasn't happy with Windows 7 on the Slate, and not happy with the battery life on Intel hardware...

 

[KBerger]

Well I like my iPAQ rw6815 very much. Even though 5 years old, it still remains an optimal price/quality/performance combination (for me). If you don't expect it to be a multimedia center in your pocket, which I don't. I mean there are players for multimedia, then there are net-books for net-surfing.

So guess a PDA is meant as a rather limited combination of these abilities, though with the advantage of them being squeezed into a rather limited space and combined additionally with ... a phone. So I don't expect a lot from them anyway, and HP seems to have been quite for some time into that market segment...

So what, are HP preparing for some new step forward with an iPAQ hybrid with Palm? That would be interesting, hope they know what they're doing.