Wall Street seems to think that Palm’s “Pre” phone and webOS signal the rebirth of the company.
Okay, let’s play along and assume that Wall Street actually got something right for a change.
Palm has a current market value of $669 million – and that’s with PALM up 36% today on the day-after “Pre” hysteria.
Apple’s current market cap is $81.2 billion, they have $28+ billion in cash on-hand, and are a debt-free company.
In other words, 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 (Microsoft, RIM, etc.) from making the acquisition.
So, should Apple buy Palm? Let us know below and also in our “MacDailyNews Poll,” located near the top left of all pages.
The story of Palm is a long and sad one. Back in the 1990’s, they were great – the Palm Pilot was innovative and cool and brought mobile computing to the masses. Apple’s Newton couldn’t compete – not because of problems, or the handwriting recognition, but because Palm fit in the “palm” of your hand (get it?) and was just easy to tote around. Cool.
But then they just sat there thinking nobody could knock them down. And along came big evil Microsoft, with WinCE. WinCE just sucked, but they crammed it down the market and were first with things like color and wi-fi. Palm scrambled to add new features to PalmOS and in doing so made it unstable and generally sucky. My Treo was OK, but hardly stable.
The Palm Pre does look like a good comeback for the company, and I truly hope they do well. Time will tell, of course. If they’ve been able to create a user-friendly and STABLE experience, they very well might be able to gain some traction. Maybe not over RIM, but at least over Microsoft. Especially since MS doesn’t seem to know what they’re doing these days…
But should Apple buy them? Not at all! Palm doesn’t bring enough to Apple’s table to make them worth it. Apple should only invest in that which they can’t do themselves effectively. They already have a mobile division working on the iPhone and iPod lines. If they need more talent, it’s more cost-effective for them to find it on their own rather than chop up an entire company.
Besides, a little healthy competition is a good thing. If Palm actually pulls this off, and becomes a serious competitor, it can only benefit us iPhone users.
Palm has name recognition worth over $600 million. Apple would have a chance to really open up the cell-phone industry in a huge way. Far beyond the smart-phone industry, a bit lower on the food chain … but not TOO low.
This would also be an opportunity to break away from the ATT monopoly. Maybe. A semi-revised iPhone, perhaps with a keyboard to satisfy the complainers and lower the cost a mite, that “Palm” could sell to Sprint, or somebody.
That said … I don’t think it’s a particularly good idea.
I agree with whoever pointed out that Apple paid less than that for the NeXt operating system.
Kind of seems silly to pay for something Apple doesn’t need and that costs even more (at the time, Apple needed a new operating system and they got it for $450 million).
An other thing worth considering: Yeah, the Palm name might be worth $600 million to someone out there, but for Apple it would be twisted by every tech mag/blog on the planet as a desperation move by Apple. I’d argue it’d lead to negative PR.
I say Apple just keeps on innovating and lets someone else spend the cash on what MIGHT be the No. 2 device on the market a year from now.
NO! If Apple did buy Palm it could be possible that all of the other manufacturers of substandard or worthless high-end cell phones would probably file an antitrust suit against Apple because their products are substandard or worthless.
Should I buy caduceus candies?
Why exactly would Apple want to buy Palm? To eliminate a floundering non-competitor? To get hold of Palm’s me-too technology? That’s a laugh!
NOO!
But Apple needs to compete. iPhone has been out 2 years, and key features are nowhere to be found, and with Apple’s engineering and software resources that’s a little embarrassing.
Cut and Paste, syncing, etc.
Apple and AT&T;raping customers, it’s opening up the market to competitors, Verizon, RIM and Sprint aren’t going away. Apple could really have hurt Palm, RIM and Microsoft if they had made the phone available to all of the phone companies.
They would have tripped overthemselves making great plans with the iPhone to attract the uppercrust of the market, making a very competitive market for customers to enjoy Apple hardware and software in.
But alas, Apple teamed with AT&T;and sent in motion high cost programs that have pi$$ed off lots of would be customers.
Shouldn’t we really be asking “Should Palm Buy Apple?”
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If anything Apple, should buy RIM not Palm. This would give it access to huge list of corporate clients. Image every blackberry is sold with the keyboard and touch interface running OS X.
If Palm takes another total nosedive it might be worth it. Not sure what is in there patent portfolio, but did they not buy BeOS. The engineers and the patents might be worth 300 to 350 million.
Such a step would be Premature.
No!
1. it’s tooo Micro$oftian. And a style of behaviour that would lead to monopolism!
2. Competition is good. If this Pre is really so damn good it will only make the iPhone better, and probably before it is actually anything more than vapourware! LOL!
Palm seems to have finally come up with something decent, although I doubt it will save the company.
It will always be good for Apple to have a competitor or two pushing to catch up to iPhone/iPod/Mac. If you’re not pushing ahead with new ideas, you’re going to get lapped (see Palm’s history).
I hope Palm survives and the Pre is at least somewhat successful. While I love my iPhone and won’t buy a Palm again, some people don’t like the iPhone (although I haven’t found any honest ones who could truly complain about something other than it was locked to AT&T;).
Q: what two things does SJ always mention when he introduces a new portable device? Hint: things prominently not mentioned in the Pre introduction.
A: price and battery life.
With all those features in such a small device, and all that multitasking going on, one would expect quite poor battery life. Also, I doubt Sprint can afford to subsidize it anywhere near as much as AT&T;does the iPhone so it will be quite expensive as well. (Also, from what I’ve read, I doubt the development environment will be anywhere near as rich as the iPhone’s SDK.)
ON CNBC I watched a principle from Elevation Partners talk with Maria Bartiromo about the Pre at CES. Here was a guy with hundreds of millions of dollars to throw around gushing like a school kid trying to impress the head cheerleader. Maria looked embarrassed for him and was careful to get him to disclose on air that he represented an entity that now owned 40% of PALM. He looked quite nervous and, after watching him, I too had the thought that he was praying for a buyout of PALM to save his bacon.
Hell no, Palm is shot. A waste of everything. DO NOT DO IT Apple!
alot of palm people are old apple people
For the love of God, Montresor! Who comes up with these tortured, inane hypotheticals? Should Apple buy McDonald’s? Should Apple buy Monsanto? Should Apple buy Toys ‘R Us? Should Apple buy Gap, Inc? Should Apple buy General Mills? It never ends.
It would make more sense for Apple to buy South American Bat Guano Corp. than for it to buy Palm (or Dell, another lunatic suggestion floated around every 10 days by self-appointed tech industry sages whose egos are bigger than their brains…).
Should Apple just fill bag with money and throw the bags in a furnace?
Forget Palm. They’re history.
Apple should by the Detroit auto makers. At least Apple would be getting something with potential….
Why the f*ck would Apple buy Palm? What a stupid thought.
…
To say that all buying Palm would cost Apple is the market cap is a tremendously narrow view.
Looked at Palm’s earnings history lately? Apple would be absorbing a company that’s burning money. What would they get out of it? Intellectual property? Haha. Palm has no new ideas and hasn’t had new ideas for years now. That’s why their market share has gone in the toilet and their financial specs have followed it down the drain.
Hell…NO. Palm is circling the drain anyway. Palm Pre as nice as it is maybe to late.
Hellz NO!
Apple sells toys for kids. Shiny, nice but completely useless stuff for big $$$. That’s what Apple is good for.
iPhone is just another of these toys for kids and women. It doesn’t (and never will) be a phone for everyone.
Not to mention the expensive service plans the iPhone requires (which are between 75% and 100% more than equivalent Sprint plans and even 15% to 25% more than AT&T;’s own plans for non-Apple devices).
Not everybody wants a pretty, expensive Apple-made toy loaded with restrictions on how, when, where, and what software you may install on it. Not everyone wants a phone with a horrible on-screen keyboard.
A “smartphone” that restricts what software you can install? A “smartphone” that deletes applications that Apple decides you shouldn’t be able to run? A “smartphone” that cannot sent multimedia messages, cannot cut and paste, that cannot record video, that doesn’t support even basic open development? A “smartphone” where every application must first be approved by Apple — delaying releases by weeks or months and banning any software that Apple deems “not worthy?” A smartphone that REQUIRES Apple’s proprietary iTunes software to even work… iTunes software that runs very poorly on Windows, and isn’t even available for Linux?
C’mon, give me a break. Paying for that is like paying for the privilege of living in prison, but polishing your chains to a pretty, shiny glow.
Apple makes great products, but they are arrogant and full of themselves, and do things that make using their products intolerable for anybody who wants to do anything beyond video games and web browsing.
Palm will do just fine. Not all of us are ready to be converted into Apple clones, loaded with excuses as to why The Great Apple should be able to control every aspect of how, where, and why we use our phones.
Everyone seems to be against this acquisition, and they are probably right, but I wonder… Consider the following:
1.Apple could probably buy Palm for less than 2.5% of the cash they have sitting in the bank.
2. They would gain valuable IP, though they probably don’t need most of it.
3. They would be able to keep the most talented Palm engineers and designers and jettison the rest.
4. The new Palm OS has received spectacular reviews and its history with its handheld OS is quite impressive (the Palm OS was way better–more intuitive and “Apple-like”–than any Windows mobil operating system.)
5. The Treo has a significant following, including inroads in the business community.
6. If this is legally possible, and I’m not sure it is, but it would be the most important and, I think, the only truly compelling reason to purchase Palm: It would permit Apple to sell smartphones to Verizon and Sprint customers. Verizon sells the Treo and Apple might be able to modify the Treo’s software to make it compatible with the app store and take advantage of many of the other iPhone technologies. (I’m writing thoughts; I have no idea if it’s possible) This would let them gain boatloads of customers. Besides Verizon, Sprint: The new Palm phone is a “Sprint” exclusive. Sprint, despite its dismal performance in the last few years, is a pioneer in high-speed wireless and has a lot invested in future wireless technologies.
[ I (and my wife and son) have switched from Verizon to AT&T;because of the iPhone. But we get “no service” in our home
and it is extremely frustrating. I have two friends who made the switch and, because of terrible reception, ended up having their AT&T;contracts voided and, reluctantly, had to return their iPhones. ]
I doubt Apple would ever consider buying Palm. The reasons I state above have never been the type that motivated Steve to purchase another company. But the cost would be a drop in the bucket, and I wonder…