Time for change at Palm, company seeking new ownership
Even with their rich history, Palm doesn't get much play here at Pocketables, mainly because of their inability to keep up with the Joneses, or in this case, Apple and Google. Not for a lack of effort, because webOS is a formidable alternative to the iPhone OS and Android, but the hardware is a different story. The Pre and Pixi have been huge sales disappointments, and although they were considered Palm's last chance to get back in the game they practically created years ago, they may be getting a do-over.
Bloomberg is reporting that Palm is ready to face the music and has put the company up for sale, at least according to three unnamed sources familiar with the dealings. Goldman Sachs and Qatalyst Partners have been tapped to find prospective buyers, with both HTC and Lenovo the favorites after Dell decided to pass. As expected, the talking heads for each of the involved parties have all declined comment at this time, due to the private nature of talks thus far.
If a sale does go through, it will have a definite effect on the handheld market, because even though Palm is battered and bruised, they do hold some technology jewels that could be put to great use in the right hands and hardware. Imagine HTC integrating webOS and SenseUI into a fuller OS layer to run on Android or a new mini-tablet device. What if Apple jumped in at the last minute to grab some of the valuable patents that Palm still holds, or just to keep them away from their lawsuit buddy HTC?
The possibilities are endless, as compared to being at the end if Palm had stayed the course.
[PreCentral]
