Photo: Palm

It is now official. The drawn out acquisition of Palm is now complete, with HP’s press release unequivocally stating they plan on using Palm’s webOS for netbooks, smartphones, and, surprise surprise, a webOS tablet computer.

Shareholder approval paved the way

There were never any competition regulatory concerns with regards to the HP Palm acquisition, so all that stood in HP’s way was shareholder approval. Around a week ago, Palm’s shareholders approved the merger, with the final valuation, as previously announced, being $1.2 billion in an all-cash deal valued at $5.70 per share.

The crown jewel

As we’ve said before, the Palm webOS is the crown jewel – and the primary driver – in this acquisition, with HP not mincing any words about who will be doing what.

The company’s statement read: ‘HP’s global scale and financial strength plus Palm’s award-winning webOS experience, as well as its acclaimed Pre and Pixi smartphone product lines, enhance HP’s ability to participate more aggressively in the highly profitable, $100 billion smartphone and connected mobile device markets.’

Bye, bye Windows 7 Slate

Photo: HP

The key phrase in that paragraph is ‘connected mobile devices’, and HP revealed it would be developing a webOS tablet computer, as we expected. The first thing that came to mind regarding the HP Palm acquisition and Palm webOS was what would happen to the Windows 7-powered Slate PC. There were rumours a few months ago that HP had canned the Slate altogether, but we predicted Hewlett-Packard would possibly just replace Windows 7 with its newly acquired mobile slate. Which is a good thing considering we, umm, slated the HP Slate for shoehorning Windows 7 in.

Rev your engines

The HP Palm acquisition really does give the Palm team some financial muscle, as much as it gives HP a very innovative framework to work from. The prospect of a Palm webOS powered tablet is a fascinating one, and if executed properly at both a software and hardware level could mean a serious competitor in the tablet space.

Photo: HTC

Word has it HTC has dropped it’s bid to acquire Palm, passing on both the company’s hardware and webOS mobile operating system products.

Not enough synergy

Reportedly, the reason for dropping the bid is that, having looked at Palm’s financials, technology and doing general due diligence, HTC did not find enough synergy between the two companies.

Lenovo mobile a possibility?

This leaves fast-growing Chinese computing company Lenovo as the last known high profile buyer. Lenovo, who have in the last three years skyrocketed in terms of computer sales, have a huge market presence in Asia, Africa and Europe, but have struggled to crack the US market to date. The thinking on the part of Lenovo, according to those close to the deal, is that buying Palm would give them a good distribution channel as well as an established, although ailing, brand name in America.

£780 million

Photo: Palm

It is rumoured £780 million is Palm’s sale price. However, given how its brands are currently struggling, and additional due diligence may reveal the company’s product roadmap is less than exciting, nor is it’s brand name that big of a deal anymore, that valuation may drop still.

webOS the cherry on top

The big deal with Palm is, of course, its webOS mobile operating system. When HTC was still the forerunner in acquiring Palm, many analysts predicted this could mean HTC would begin adopting an iPhone-esque and BlackBerry-esque approach to mobile phones by having software and hardware developed in-house, as opposed to using WinMo and Google’s Android as its software framework.

Lenovo, in addition to its potential new-found phone business, could quite possibly adapt webOS as an alternative operating system for the company’s inevitable move into contemporary tablets, giving it both a new market with something different, as well as a platform for investing significant resources into Palm’s most promising asset.