Palm puts itself on sale
By Alexis • Apr 14th, 2010 • Category: Industry News, PDA News
- Photo: Stock.Xchng
In the wake of a terrible year, where the once famous Palm PDA maker’s latest quarterly results exposed how weak the company had become and how poorly the Palm Pre performed, Palm’s long awaited sale is rumoured to be in motion.
Goldman leads the sale
Reuters reports that investment banking firm Goldman Sachs is handling the sale, with Qatalyst partners also on board to help find a buyer – possibly this week, already. Reuters sources say smartphone firm HTC Corp, as well as Chinese computing firm Lenovo are considering purchasing the ailing Palm.
Rollercoaster equity journey
- Photo: Palm
At one point, Palm’s value plummeted by 60 per cent this year, with their quarterly earnings shining a spotlight on the company’s weakened financials. The company’s third quarter losses, which totaled £14.65 million, led some analysts to change the company’s share rating to $0.
Once rumours began swirling that Palm would be put up for sale last week, its share’s surged over 30 per cent.
Things fall apart
Palm, who built their reputation off of their famous Palm PDA, have been struggling to make a dent in the smartphone market, where Apple, RIM and HTC are dominating.
- Photo: Palm
Their Palm Pre and Palm Pixie smartphones had disappointing sales, despite quite a bit of media coverage and a huge advertising campaign. The Palm Pre, at the time billed as another in the long line of iPhone killers, was everything but, even though it was a competent phone.
The value in acquisition
The company acquiring Palm would be getting engineering talent and the brand name behind the infamous Palm PDA, which still has value in the US but not much elsewhere. It would make perfect sense for Lenovo if they have intentions of entering the smartphone market, while it would offer HTC (who’ve had a great year) additional distribution channels in the US.
Tags for this article: for sale, palm, palm for sale, Palm PDA, palm pre
