Palm, Inc. today announced that Palm stockholders have approved proposals that will permit Palm to conclude a $325 million investment by Elevation Partners, L.P., borrow up to $400 million in an associated debt financing, make a cash distribution of $9.00 per share to Palm stockholders, and make related adjustments to its equity plans.
In other actions, the stockholders elected Gordon Campbell and Donna Dubinsky as Class II directors to serve until the annual meeting of Palm stockholders to be held in 2010, and ratified the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending May 30, 2008.
“We appreciate our stockholders’ strong support of these proposals and look forward to an era of renewed innovation and focused execution at Palm,” said Ed Colligan, president and chief executive officer, in the press release.
In connection with this transaction, Palm will appoint Jonathan Rubinstein, who headed Apple’s iPod business, will become executive chairman of the Board of Directors. Rubinstein also spearheaded development of Apple’s iMac, as well as being part of Apple’s inner circle when Steve Jobs joined the computer company. Fred Anderson, Apple’s former finance chief, will join Palm’s board. Investor Roger McNamee also becomes a Palm director.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s possible that some or all of these ex-Apple execs have an axe to grind. Unfortunately for them, Palm is more like a rapidly melting Jello Pudding Pop. Happy grinding, guys!
” . . . ‘and look forward to an era of renewed innovation and focused execution at Palm,’ said Ed Colligan”
How many failed attempts to do they get?
Shouldn’t he change his name to Ed Mulligan?
Good luck to em.
It’s like when a team wins the super bowl. All the assistant coaches get to be couches themselves.
@ MDN Please prepare the bath for lots of BLOOD!!!! I look forward to that Headline with lots of ticipation!!!
couches??
I know that there is a lot of armchair quarterbacking going on here but….couches?
Sofa.
Sofa things are going swimmingly at Palm.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
No Squirt For You
As many failed attempts as Apple got. That’s how many…
Clearly, MDN really doesn’t like Palm! Perhaps there could be a slight doubt in someone’s mind that something good may yet happen with the new people on board?
Or not.
“Clearly, MDN really doesn’t like Palm!”
Perhaps because Palm threw Mac users under the bus years ago.
Apple can only benefit from the innovations of their competitors, whoever they are. Unfortunately for all of Apple’s competitors, including Palm, the most innovative products (by far) coming out of the computer industry these days belong to Apple. Whatever else any of Apple’s competitors do is really irrelevant, although we could definitely do without all the mean-spirited Apple bashing from various quarters.
Remeber when Ed Colligan laughed at the iPhone? I wonder who’s laughing now.
http://www.macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/11695/
The open source and hacker community has been able to accomplish more in the past 2 months developing for the iPhone without Apple’s help than Palm has accomplished with their OS in the past 12 years.
Bury ’em Steve. Put them out of their misery.
slike: Aren’t you too clever for this site?
Apple, the company, only made one failed attempt.
They attempted to make a go of it without Steve Jobs.
How did Palm hurt Mac users? Enlighten me, because I just don’t know.
Didn’t Fred Anderson, Apple’s former finance chief, have to shell out a couple of million for stock fraud committed whilst at Apple?
I reckon Anderson is an ‘established big-business’ shill, paid for by the likes of Microsoft to slip in like a manchurian candidate. Anything to f* Apple up, upsetting the ‘way things work’.
I hope Steve pays enough attention to this, realizes how high the stakes are, don’t want to be another Paul Wellstone or live too close to fault lines.
Here, here, Andy C.! And that’s why I’ll be dumping my Treo 650 for an iPhone when my Cingular contract ends next month.
Palm as a smartphone(?) company doesn’t deserve to survive when they’ve made no substantial improvements in hardware or OS since 2004. Palm Garnet is looking VERY tired indeed in 2007, and I for one have supported it long enough.
All I hear from Mr. Colligan is empty rhetoric and empty promises. Palm are behind the times and the eight ball. And I don’t see them getting out alive.
John Gee,
One example:
It’s old news — from about a year ago, actually — but Palm has once again shafted Mac users by providing their Palm TX Enterprise Security Update (which adds support for stronger Wi-Fi encryption methods and authentication protocols) via a Windows-only installation process. Someone has probably figured out a hack to get this to work with Macs, but it’s just one more example of how little Palm values its Mac-based customers.
I hope that Apple destroys the market for Treos with the iPhone. It would serve Palm right.
http://lylejohnson.name/blog/?p=188
It’s possible that some or all of these ex-Apple execs have an axe to grind.
That’s just stupid. You don’t shell out $325 million cash and borrow another $400,000,000, to grind an axe.
This was a business decision based on what the buyers felt they could do with the company.
Obviously, Palm under current management, is a floundering weakling, just as Apple was back in ’96. Under the right management, and with a capital infustion, there is no reason to believe that Palm could not execute a similar turn around.
This is business. It is not personal. Only time will tell if it was a good business decision, as Apple backers from the mid ’90s are aware.
I expect more than this from MDN editors.
To Parkinni:
You probably don’t have to wait a month to dump your Treo; AT&T;will just enroll you in another 2 year agreement when you buy your iPhone, and they won’t charge you a cancellation fee.
As far as Palm is concerned, this may be its last hope at survival. Rubinstein may be able to help them develop a new, competitive handheld device, and perhaps he can become Palm’s version of Steve Jobs.
But I don’t see it, not unless a serious competitor to the iPhone is developed, and quickly. Rubinstein can use the Treo line to tread water until such a device is developed, but he’s going to have a tough time getting around Apple’s patents and avoiding other design issues.
Don’t forget: Apple Computer was left for dead until Steve came back and drastically changed the product offerings, while staying true to the core business focus. Then Apple developed OS X and the iPod. If Rubinstein can follow the same blueprint, Apple may have a worthy competitor in a couple of years. And that’s good for everyone.
The last thing we want is Apple being the sole company capable of developing quality products. Even Apple needs to be pushed by competition to develop the next big thing.
Palm Dumps Mac Support – February 10, 2004
http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=10900
I’d root for Palm if they hadn’t abandoned us Mac users and left us for dead years ago.
As far as I’m concerned, I’m in 100% agreement with MDN:
Palm must die.
Fred “Convict” Anderson attempted to implicate Steve Jobs in the options mess that Anderson and his underlings created and for which Anderson had to pay millions to settle with the SEC in order to keep himself out of prison.
So Palm has a convict and Rubinstein, the guy who couldn’t hold a candle to Tony Fadell. Whoopdeedoo!
It’s entirely possible that there’s an axe to grind.
Palm’s mobile hardware and software are irrecoverably behind Apple’s heavily patented mobile hardware and software.
Expect a quick turnaround with Palm. These ex Apple executives are the ones that really turned Apple around. With their knowledge, Palm will surely knock the iPhone and even the iPod out of the market easily.