“The company is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Frank Quattrone’s Qatalyst Partners to find a buyer, said the people, who declined to be identified because a sale hasn’t been announced,” Saitto and Levy report. “Taiwan’s HTC Corp. and China’s Lenovo Group Ltd. have looked at the company and may make offers, said the people.”
Saitto and Levy report, “Palm, which helped pioneer the market for personal digital assistants, would offer suitors the WebOS software that competes against mobile operating systems from iPhone maker Apple Inc. and Google Inc.”
MacDailyNews Take: There’s so much wrong with that last sentence that we have to interject: Apple pioneered the market for personal digital assistants. So much so, in fact, Apple’s then-CEO coined the term Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). Looking at sales numbers, Saitto and Levy need a new dictionary; “competes” is the last thing beleaguered Palm does with Apple. And, let’s not include Google until we see just how many of Apple’s patents Android has infringed upon, shall we?
Saitto and Levy continue, “The Sunnyvale, California-based device maker surged 32 percent last week on the Nasdaq Stock Market on renewed speculation of a takeover bid. Before the rally, the stock had plunged more than 60 percent this year, dragged down by disappointing sales of the Pre and Pixi phones.”
MacDailyNews Take: Beleaguered Palm’s stock chart chronicles the company’s death throes. Wait, did somebody just say, “We’ve gotta pump this before we can dump this” or did we just imagine it?
Saitto and Levy continue, “Chief Financial Officer Doug Jeffries last month forecast sales in the quarter ending in May will be less than $150 million, compared with the $300 million average of analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg at the time… Dell Inc. looked at Palm, though it decided against an offer, according to two of the people familiar with the matter… Palm may burn $80 million every three months for the next five quarters as competition in the smartphone market intensifies, Berenberg Bank analysts including Adnaan Ahmad wrote in a March 25 report. The company held $592 million in cash and short-term investments at the end of its fiscal third- quarter, according to the report.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: What we wrote nearly 15 months ago:
• Apple could buy Palm this afternoon with petty cash. In fact, maybe that’s what Palm and Elevation Partners – and Wall Street speculators – are really shooting for: a buyout by Apple or some other company. Apple would buy Palm in order to absorb a would-be competitor and/or gain access to certain patents and technologies and/or to prevent another company from making the acquisition. – MacDailyNews, January 9, 2009
• Palm’s Pre dog and pony show is nothing more than takeover bait. They simply do not have the resources necessary to create another mobile platform, especially one that is superfluous. If Palm’s Pre is not a ruse, then those responsible are kidding themselves. – MacDailyNews Take, January 21, 2009, just after beleaguered Palm unveiled their Palm Pre and webOS.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Chef Stephen” and “Chas” for the heads up.]
Cue the schadenfreude.
It’s fun to look back and know when you’re right.
MDNgasm.
Palm bet the company and lost. But I admire them for trying.
As someone who’s used webOS there is actually a lot of things that are right about it. I would say that it’s right behind iPhoneOS… it’s really that good.
It’s just a shame it’s on palm devices.
I think an International Lottery is in order.
Buck a ticket. Hell, I’ll pay a buck to own WebOS.
– – – – – – – – – – – – –
In other news:
Adobe releases: CSMeh
@the velvet hammer: they copied Apples work, slapped a different face onit, tried to leech iTunes, while at the same time trying to paint Apple as the villian. Produced lousy hardware and stabbed Apple in the back. They need to be gone. Good riddance.
Palm did indeed “help” pioneer the PDA industry; in fact it probably did more to popularize it than Apple. It helped that it was started by ex-Newton engineers.
Though I lost all respect for them when they became just another Windows Mobile device maker.
Steve Jobs will buy Palm to help out his buddy Bono who is heavily invested in Palm.
Stranger things have happened! (but not necessarily in this universe.)
MDN:
Thanks for the credit – not! I sent this to you at midnight EDT. Speaking of EDT, your posting clock is running fast again.
It’s hard not to use Windows Mobile when Microsoft is throwing bags of money at you at the same time.
Palm made a very lucrative mistake using Windows Mobile.
Not quite sure why MDN says Palm didn’t pioneer the PDA market…they didn’t invent it, sure…but they were the driving force behind it.
In the same way I would say that Apple pioneered the portable MP3 player market although they didn’t invent it.
Quick guys: What’s the best U2 song to commemorate the self immolation of Palm Inc.
Wait…This is too perfect…
They actually wrote a song called “Sometimes you can’t make it on your own”??!!
Excuse me Gentlemen,
…..*steps out of the room…
……….
………..*tears of laughter
It’s interesting to read the reactions at PreCentral to this news – lots of delusional thinking and mindless iPhone bashing.
And while this rumor may be helping Palm’s stock price in the short term, this will do nothing but freeze sales of all that inventory they already can’t get rid of. Who’s going to buy a Pre or Pixi now? And who’s going to spend money developing for webOS?
Just curious…webos looks attractive and it’s approach to representing multitasking is interesting and cod be useful. Palm holds various worthwhile patents. What’s the case for apple not trying to get palm?
Yeah, go ahead grab hold of that WebOS anchor chain as it rapidly plays out.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” /> You will be able to stop it’s free fall and haul it back on deck and display it proudly as your prize.
Naaa… it won’t drag you overboard, like it did palm. You’re different
So go ahead Htc and Lenovo grab ahold of that chain before it plays completely out.
I dare ya….
Opj,
WebOS is little more than locally executed webapps, nice but fatally limited.
That might have been competitive 3 years ago but in todays market it is a total nonstarter. (and attempting to relaunch a failed and critically limited OS is well… not the brightest move, even Dell is smart enough to stay away)
What? Palm is not doing well?
Remember when Apple was in trouble all those years back? The main worry then was the very real possibility that they’d get snapped up by Sony or someone. How different it is now!