HP’s press release states, “The combination of HP’s global scale and financial strength with Palm’s unparalleled webOS platform will enhance HP’s ability to participate more aggressively in the fast-growing, highly profitable smartphone and connected mobile device markets. Palm’s unique webOS will allow HP to take advantage of features such as true multitasking and always up-to-date information sharing across applications.”
MacDailyNews Take: Unparalleled? Puleeze. Somebody grab the shovels.
“Palm’s innovative operating system provides an ideal platform to expand HP’s mobility strategy and create a unique HP experience spanning multiple mobile connected devices,” said Todd Bradley, executive vice president, Personal Systems Group, HP, in the press release. “And, Palm possesses significant IP assets and has a highly skilled team. The smartphone market is large, profitable and rapidly growing, and companies that can provide an integrated device and experience command a higher share. Advances in mobility are offering significant opportunities, and HP intends to be a leader in this market.”
“We’re thrilled by HP’s vote of confidence in Palm’s technological leadership, which delivered Palm webOS and iconic products such as the Palm Pre. HP’s longstanding culture of innovation, scale and global operating resources make it the perfect partner to rapidly accelerate the growth of webOS,” said Jon Rubinstein, chairman and chief executive officer, Palm, in the press release. ”We look forward to working with HP to continue to deliver industry-leading mobile experiences to our customers and business partners.”
MacDailyNews Take: Iconic in regard to shoddy build quality, maybe. For such a skinny guy, Jon sure is full of more than his fair share of shit.
Under the terms of the merger agreement, Palm stockholders will receive $5.70 in cash for each share of Palm common stock that they hold at the closing of the merger. The merger consideration takes into account the updated guidance and other financial information being released by Palm this afternoon. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of domestic and foreign regulatory approvals and the approval of Palm’s stockholders. The transaction is expected to close during HP’s third fiscal quarter ending July 31, 2010.
Palm’s current chairman and CEO, Jon Rubinstein, is expected to remain with the company.
Source: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
MacDailyNews Take: Here’s what we wrote over 15 months ago, just after beleaguered Palm unveiled their Palm Pre and webOS: “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
Okay, so who’s salivating over an HP webOS phone and/or slate PC with no ecosystem of which to speak? That’s right, no one who doesn’t look forward to spending at least 24 hours cooped up alone inside the server room. iPaq.
Buh-bye, Palm.
Now, we need another prescient quote to which we can repeatedly refer going forward, so here:
HP’s acquisition of Palm means that not only is HP sick and tired of being stuck with and dependent upon perpetual laggard Microsoft, but, more importantly, yet another smartphone/slate PC OS will live to confuse the market. This will significantly benefit the one company that has repeatedly proven its ability to distinguish itself above all others: Apple. The more confused the marketplace, the faster customers will flock to Apple’s trusted brand and quality products.
Have a nice evening, Microsoft and Google. You, too, RIM and Nokia. 
Here are some fun quotes we’ve iCal’ed over the years:
• We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in. – Palm CEO Ed Colligan, November 20, 2006
• Why would we price ‘Pre’ less than iPhone when we have a significantly better product? – Palm CEO Ed Colligan, January 10, 2009
• June 29, 2009 is the two-year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone. Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later. – Palm backer Roger McNamee, March 05, 2009
• No comment. – Palm spokesman Derick Mains on the future of the company, March 10, 2010
OH SCHNAP!!!!
MDN, please help me pick lotto numbers.
I’ve argued here, and received much derision ofr it, that there were only two mobile OSs worth a damn on the market today. First is iPhoneOS and the second was webOS. The only thing the webOS was lacking was the strength of an HP (or other similar firm).
I’ll bet HP’s purchase though, was not so much about mobile handsets, as it is about protecting its laptop business. This should be a clear signal to everyone just how succesfull the industry thinks the iPad is going to be.
HP wants to battle Apple in the mobile arena. This will give them a WebOS-based HPhone and HPad.
Great palm made by hp probably running on sprint….. My iPhone wants to crash just from all the peer pressure
HP is struggling at the moment. Their employees are overworked and anxious to bail… except they need their jobs.
A buoy thrown into rough waters.
So I guess future Slates won’t be running Windows, hmmm…?
Fortunately HP has never been any good at software. It will be interesting to see if they can do anything with a mobile phone hardware platform.
Yet another player in the mobile phone arena (yes, HP is just replacing Palm, but HP has far more resources to expand Palm’s offerings).
Now that came from left field. I see no problem with this. HP no longer has the stomach for making the investment required to make this work. And if they do as good a job of getting Palm working properly as they have done in the last five years in making printers that crap out, drivers that don’t work, over priced cartridges, there is truly is no worry.
HP needs an OS to stay alive in the NEW mobile era which iPAd has forced everyone into.
They have the wear with all to tweak and evolve webOS and make it into a windows alternative, but Ruby, you ain’t no Steve Jobs no matter how big a bank you have behind you and iPhone and iPad will reign here solid.
Will HPQ be buying Sprint next?
The stage is set..
The players identified..
Let the battle begin..
suckas!
First Impression – Wow No Way!
Second Impression – Hmm nice fit could work
Can you imagine your smartphone acting like your printer. Talk for 2 minutes and then wait for clean cycle. Frequency x is out of time, you must insert new x-cartridge for more minutes. NIGHTMARE!!!
HP. <strike>Invent</strike>. <strike>Invest</strike>. <strike>Invert</strike>. Inert.
So, did Bono lose money or make money with his Palm venture?
How to waste $1.2B!
Damn I would make good use of it! Maybe HP will fail before Dell after all!!!
“I like HP’s strategy. I like it a lot”
(“Waddaya’ mean they won’t be license our stuff anymore? It’s on their &*^%$# slate-thingy. I did the demo. Huh…but… I’ll be made fun of..DAMN! Someone get me another chair pronto!”)
I’m waiting on Enderle’s take on this. Should be worth a few giggles
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“HP wants to battle Apple in the mobile arena. This will give them a WebOS-based HPhone and HPad.”
I don’t think HP wants to do battle with Apple per se, so much as they want the #2 spot, which will be very valuable.
HP has limited software experience, but the experience they will require exists already within the Palm purchase.
Anybody pushing products using Android and/or Win7 Mobile, along with RIMM and Symbian are going to drop by the wayside. Android doesn’t allow for product differentiation, and RIMM, Win7 Mobile and Symbian are creaking in their age.
This is going to turn into a two horse race, with a lot of trailers.
Proves I think that HP are not especially confident about the prospects of their new tablet with bloated Windows OS. Can’t blame them but they are going to have to put some long nights in to make this move work in time.
“HP. Buy”
From HP’s prospective, it works great. They now can shed Microsoft more from their lineups. And now they don’t have to deal with Google either.
From Apple’s prospective, it works great, cause Android and HP/Palm will be fighting out for second place while Microsoft is poised to introduce their Windows phone line.
So, it sounds good to me. The only loser I see is Microsoft, which probably was banking on Palm folding.
I don’t know much about webOS, but if Steve originally wanted iPhone apps to be web-based there might be something in it.
@breeze
it’s “wherewithal”
HP + Palm should be an interesting competitor
‘Tards
jfort:
Where with all that money are you gonna buy a vision?
Exactly when did the Palm Pre become iconic? Just sayin.
HP would rather blow “approximately $1.2 billion” than use Microsoft’s smart phone software. So, Steve Ballmer, what do you think of that? I bet you can’t give that cell phone turd OS away to try to keep the tiny market share you have.
H-Palm probably made the move to keep Dell from picking them up. Too bad. Making Jon work for Michael Dell would’ve made Rubinstein realize just how low he has fallen.
True multitasking… True multitasking… True multitasking…….
That has been like the only thing Palm has been able to say for the past 1.5 years. What the heck is True multitasking… Is there such thing as False Multitasking? It seems no one care that much about “True multitasking”.
About the aqusition I think that Rubebstein should jump ship and not go to HP. If he does it’s my prediction that he will quit within a year. This Is the day when Palm the company, the brand, the technology dies. I don’t think HP is the right company to drive Palm forward. HP has tried before with things like MP3-players and even phones I think and HP does not have the right culture to do these kind of things. HP is a big boring company for the enterprise.
This will fail.
This is the day when Palm the company, the brand and the technology dies…
This was all masterminded by SJ years ago. Jon Rubinstein is an Apple mole. Now they’ve orchestrated the downfall of 2 of Apple’s competitors!
It’s conspiracy, I tell ya.
Any company that can load my computer with three hundred million bytes of code just for a stupid printer driver can’t code their way out of a wet pad. Just wait until HP has enough time to get their software engineers into that thing. There isn’t enough flash memory in the universe to support it.
Curious. How much of this purchase is a statement that Windows Mobile whatever is DOA?
Wow…HP would buy the Titantic if they it were for sale.
So, Apple has its own Mobile OS, Dell has Android, HP has Palm, who else is sitting without a dance partner? Sony has Symbian, who’s gonna dance with Microsoft? Blackberry? Moto?
I think this has more to do with Dell’s push into the mobile market than anything.
I think this is an incredible opportunity for HP. Being that Palm has the rights to BeOS, if HP wanted to they could use that as the basis to their hardware offerings and tack on WebOS as the front end, allowing them to step out of the Microsoft Tax that they currently have had to deal with. Hopefully this is something they are considering which would finally give Apple decent competition to encourage further innovation.
I can’t see this helping HP in the coming mobile device wars. Apple’s advantage comes from controlling all of the pieces of the ecosystem and the tech that underlies it. While it comes in several flavors, OSX is at the heart of every Apple device above the iPod. What technology will an HP WebOS device share with anything else HP makes?
Microsoft theoretically could do a universal base OS, but it will never happen in a real world. Google’s Android could also do it, but so far the Android experience is fragmented and inconsistent.
If nothing else, it gives a shot in the arm to the WebOS platform in terms of app development. Developers can at least be sure HP isn’t going out of business anytime soon.
Apple should be fine if HP’s app store is designed by the same people who design the other HP consumer web sites. They are horrible.
@ Hm…
Quote from HP VP of Strategy and Corporate Development Brian Humphries:
“We intend to continue to be a strategic partner for Microsoft. They’re a huge piece of our business today, and will continue to be so.”
http://www.precentral.net/hp-continue-making-windows-mobile-phones
“We’re thrilled by HP” said Jon Rubinstein
No shit! This has got breathing a sigh of relief.
HP is out of their minds to drop $1.2B on Palm.
They should have waited another two weeks. They could have had it for a measly $250m. That would have saved them $950m.
I guess they are going to make their cheap printers cheaper.
More garbage from HP when they realize their mistake. Time to short their stock.
I just don’t get the justification for the buy?
Regardless of the prescience of MDN’s take on WebOS, Pre, et al. HP with WebOS is, in my mind, the worst case scenario for a Palm takeover. HP has the resources to create a WebOS ecosystem using Apple as the template. I doubt they will ever be able to achieve the elegance of OS X, but they will try to use it to differentiate themselves as Apple does with OS X commanding a premium for their products.
This is a good move for HP. I’m glad Palm employees will still have a job. When I say employees- I mean the real workforce- not the guys that brought Palm down. Jon should remain though… as janitor.
We have to remember that no matter what us apple users think there are people in this world who will not buy apple products because they believe them to be too pricey.
I had it said to me on several occasions and no matter what I say to the doubters they don’t take it in and later come to show me their latest acquisition which is not apple branded but “it is a bargain”, or so they tell me.
Therefore ho acquiring palm may be good in the end for the Luddites of this world. It might not be osx but it could turn out to be a decent operating system for them, and if it help the world get rid of Microsoft and it’s over-rated product what’s the harm.
As in real life there are those at the top and the rest of us trying to achieve that status so let’s live and let live a little, I mean, think about it, if there was only one tv channel or one brand of beer would we all be happy? I don’t think so.
Talk about $1.2 billion spent in a wrong way. I see a future HP shareholder lawsuit.
The hubris of some Mac users is becoming intolerable. I own 4 Mac’s, numerous iPods, and iPhones seem to be breeding like rabbits in my household, but don’t assume for one minute that the rest of the world is dumb. HP is a reasonably good company and they would have a compelling business case for the purchase….even if not as clear to those of you drinking the Apple Cider.
Palm’s dog and pony show?
OMG!!! Ponies!!1!
In general I think this is a really good move. It keeps Palm’s innovations alive and hopefully HP will allow them to breath a sigh of relief and allow them to continue working on their developments and increase the quality of both HP’s devices as well as Palms. Perhaps we may even see some aspects of WebOS in use on some of HP’s touch PC’s. Why not give the PC user anther choice between Windows and Linux/WebOS?
If it improves general usability I’m all for it.
Me thinks this is HP’s way of getting a software division. I’m more inclined to believe they are feeling the pressure in the PC business, and want to be able to offer vertically integrated products across the board, not just an iPhone or iPad competitor.
For whatever it is worth, which might not be much, I think they want to develop an OS X competitor as well.
Apple had better take this seriously, because even if the iPhone has the better OS and hardware, HP has the relationship and contracts with the corporations that buy computers by the tens of thousands — all chosen by some IT dickhead who thinks that cheaper initial purchase price is all that matters.
1.2 Billion for Palm & WebOS announced by HP on 4/28/10.
HP (HPQ) Stock Price $53.28 at closing and -.35 cents to $52.93 in
After Hours…
Let’s see what happens from here…
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The more I think about this, the more it worries me.
HP now has Palm and BeOS.
HP and corporate environment go hand and hand.
The new HP Tablet (with Palm and BeOS and WebOS) will be preferred by all the IT corporate buyers over the iPad.
@MDN take…Have to give credit where it is due…you made the correct call, and very early on, at that!
Hey….MDN wrote shit and didn’t censor itself. That means I can write shit without being deleted. Everybody now shit, shit, shit, shit,shit, shit, shit, shit, shit,shit, shit, shit, shit, shit,shit, shit, shit, shit, shit,shit, shit, shit, shit, shit,shit, shit, shit, shit, shit,shit, shit, shit, shit, shit,shit, shit, shit, shit, shit,shit, shit, shit, shit, shit,shit, shit, shit, shit, shit,shit?
Hey I meant figuratively not literally…oh SHIT!!!!!!
I’m such a child…..
Yeah well if HP treats this “merger” LOL, like they did the Compaq one then it will be years before things get back to normal for Palm users.
HP has NEVER been the same after they merged with Compaq, or rather, the Compaq Server business has never truly recovered. They constantly miss deadlines on shipping equipment, new servers arrive with bugs that require entire motherboards to be swapped out of BRAND NEW $8000 servers.
This company is totally frelled but unfortunately they are the leper with the most fingers in my book.
Now they started selling servers without the DVD necessary to install Operating Systems and the drivers without manual intervention. If you want it you have to tell them when you order the server. They claim its to help the environment but they ship 10 languages worth of stuff that people throw away 5 minutes after getting the server!!!!
Farewell Palm, it was real, but they will never be the same company again. Maybe HP can do with the Pre what they did with the iPaq.
Ooooh, yeah ouch!
ChrissyOne sez: “So I guess future Slates won’t be running Windows, hmmm…?”
That’s an interesting concept. Here we have competing touch / smartphone operating systems out the ears with Microsoft in damaged reputation mode.
What if there is a mass exodus from Windows to ANYTHING else? This could get fun! I like!
How about a HP 50g calculator with 3G-phone and webOS. I bet there’s a niche there in the mobile market that the others haven’t found yet
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.12 I can understand.
1.2 is a bit much…should’ve waited a week.