Comments on: Elevation Injects $100 Million Into Palm
Palm, Inc. today announced that Elevation Partners has agreed to make an additional $100 million equity investment in Palm. Under a definitive agreement reached today, Elevation will increase its investment in Palm by acquiring newly issued Series C preferred stock that is convertible into Palm common stock at a price of $3.25 per share, a 31 percent premium to the closing price of Palm common stock on Dec. 19, 2008. The Series C preferred stock carries a 0% dividend rate. Elevation will also receive warrants to acquire 7 million shares of Palm common stock at the same price. Prior to March 31, 2009, Palm may elect to cause Elevation to sell up to $49 million of this new investment to other investors on the same or better terms than on which Elevation invested.
Shares of PALM are up sharply on the news this morning on higher than average volume. At the time of publication, the price is currently trading up 20%, around the $3 mark.
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RE: Throwing good money after bad?
1) Do EP shares get max profit shares?
2) If they do Chap 11, avg shares are zeroed out?
3) If they go private, can they screw the avg shares?
I noted the additional $100M a few minutes ago. You beat me here.
RE: Throwing good money after bad?
For example, the PREVIOUS preferred chunk of shares was worth $325 million. Up to that amount of Palm value THOSE shares get their bucks back. Only AFTER that $325 million is used up do the common shares start getting THEIRS back.
We don't know the details of the current deal since Palm hasn't made their required SEC filing yet - for all we know EP owns more than half the company now...
RE: Throwing good money after bad?
One would think so, but by the same token, one wouldn't have expected them to spend $325 million buying a quarter of a company that was tanking, which was what they originally did with Palm. Investors and investment firms are not infallible: a lot of the time their estimates and opinions are no better than industry experts outside the loop. As the saying goes, it's difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.
This move signals that Elevation Partners thinks their best bet of recovering their money is to keep Palm alive for awhile longer, and they're willing to wager another $100 million on that . Beyond that, I wouldn't read any guarantees into this.
RE: Throwing good money after bad?
OK, but then there are the eejits in the outside world who will run up the stock valuation too.
For those who missed it, I still say Palm has something big:
http://mikecane2008.wordpress.com/2008/12/15/palm-revenge-of-the-nerdi/
A few weeks will tell.
RE: Throwing good money after bad?
At the time of the deal the price was about $2.50/share - that suggests 40,000,000 common shares minimally (or equivalent) is what they got. Well, 40,000,000 shares + that extra 7 megashare chunk they can buy if they want is right near that magical "We own 50+% of the company," I believe.
The SEC filing about this is uber-important to see just how things are REALLY turnig out.
RE: Throwing good money after bad?
RE: Throwing good money after bad?
Apple raises the bet by one iPhone Nano
http://www.tuaw.com/2008/12/22/case-manufacturer-xskn-spilling-the-beans-on-iphone-nano/
Well, fine, call me stupid, but I don't see the point of an iPhone Nano. I suspect it'd be something to compete against the Razr - but with so wee a screen, it'd be worse than a Centro!
iPhone Nano: Half the phone, one-eighth the capabilities.
RE: Apple raises the bet by one iPhone Nano
RE: Apple raises the bet by one iPhone Nano
RE: Apple raises the bet by one iPhone Nano
More iPhone Nano Case Design Photos
http://www.macrumors.com/2008/12/23/more-iphone-nano-case-design-photos/
What will the tagline be?
Smaller, Cheaper, Faster?
Looks like Apple has just killed Gekko's Playskool Centro.
How can this be anything but good news?
The only conclusion one can reach from this news is that:
1. Elevation Partners has seen Nova and probably even prototype devices;
2. EP believes Palm can pull out of the nosedive in 2009; and
3. EP believes there will be a significant pay-off for their bucks.
It is very easy to be cynical and cavalier and to bash Palm further, but the bottom line is that this has to be good news for Palm fans.
One thing's for sure, it ain't going to be another Foleo. And, given that Apple actually does not have any huge announcements on the horizon any time soon, Palm has a chance to be the superstars of CES and grab lots of headlines in January.
I wouldn't be surprised to start seeing more leaks within the next week or two via Engadget or Boy Genius. Palm has never been as good at locking down leaks as Apple has.
Harold
RE: How can this be anything but good news?
They bought in at $8.50/share.
They fairly promptly saw that investment drop to (much) less than half its value.
Why do you think now is ANY different?
RE: How can this be anything but good news?
I strongly encourage caution. If Nova turns out to be the biggest thing since sliced bread, great. But the building of unbridled expectations typically only results in disappointment.
RE: How can this be anything but good news?
Elevation Partners is in for a penny, in for a pound. Sure this is good news. When you're drowning, someone throwing you a life vest is very good news. It would be even better news if Palm had actually made some money in the quarter and didn't need $100,000 million in re-financing.
RE: How can this be anything but good news?
The only way to know about Nova is to wait and see.
RE: How can this be anything but good news?
RE: How can this be anything but good news?
Tell that to the stockbroker who killed himself today because he'd lost $1.4 billion to Bernie Madoff.
RE: How can this be anything but good news?
I think they have something like 5 major investments and ONE success so far.
RE: How can this be anything but good news?
RE: How can this be anything but good news?
Be Careful About That Me-Too Media...they OFTEN get it WAY wrong.
RE: How can this be anything but good news?
"Do not be fooled into believing that because a man is rich he is necessarily smart. There is ample proof to the contrary." - Julius Rosenwald
LOL
Who needs expensive gadgets, give me a pencil and some post-its. Added benefit, perfect handwriting recognition.
RE: LOL
(Let me do Gekko's follow-up post: "It's probably because you can't afford any." When the Revolution begins, Comreades, forget the lawyers. The first thing we do is kill all the Lexus owners!)
RE: LOL
If anything, Palm would be *taking* money from me by producing what I think they'll be producing.
If I ever held Palm shares, in any manner, I'd disclose.
And it's not just Palm, btw, I own nothing of Apple or Sony, either - with all the addenda listed above in para one.
RE: LOL
Man, I told you I'm NOT doing Doom in 2009 if I blog. All of you will be having Doom for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and nightmares.
I should do a Fun, Happy Blog - to drive you all mad.
RE: LOL
Despite shrill predictions of The Apocalypse, life will go on in 2009 - and there will be a 2010.
RE: LOL
Running to the bank - in tears.
RE: LOL
"I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal because he will endure: that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound-that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: He will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance." - William Faulkner
Lemon
She's gonna make you whisper and moan
And when you're dry
She draws her water from the stone
And I feel
Like I'm slowly, slowly, slowly slipping under
And I feel
Like I'm holding onto nothing
Bono and Steve Jobs No Longer BFFs
Nerdfight
Bono and Steve Jobs No Longer BFFs
By Owen Thomas, 4:47 PM on Mon Dec 22 2008, 12,398 views
What did Steve Jobs do to his old buddy Bono? The Irish rock star, once the Apple CEO's adoring buddy, is funding the most credible threat to the iPhone yet.
Bono is a founder of Elevation Partners, the Silicon Valley private-equity firm named after the U2 song. And Elevation just sank another $100 million into Palm, the troubled smartphone maker. Palm, which waited too long to switch its product lineup from electronic organizers to souped-up cell phones and whose Treo smartphone is showing its age, lost more than $500 million in the most recent quarter. Bono's firm now owns 39 percent of Palm.
He's also lassoed several former Apple executives into the Palm corral. Fred Anderson, a former Apple CFO and board member, is an investor at Elevation. Jon Rubinstein, a hardware executive who served as Jobs's right-hand man at Apple, resigned in 2006 — one day before the company's 30-year anniversary — and joined Palm a year ago. Rubinstein, the company's executive chairman, is working on a new family of devices that will compete with Apple's iPhone; the big unveiling is planned for the CES computer trade show next month.
The last CES was also the scene of the latest dig by Bono at Jobs. In January 2008, he appeared in a farewell video for Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. Later that month, he shilled for Michael Dell, the founder of the eponymous PC maker who once called for Jobs to shut down Apple and "return the money to shareholders." (Apple is now worth far more than Dell. Ha!)
And to think they were once so close. At an Apple event in 2003, Bono called Jobs "the Dalai Lamai of integration." One year later, Bono and Jobs introduced a U2-branded edition of the iPod. Jobs, who is rarely seen in public, attended a U2 concert in 2005, and Bono praised Apple as being "more creative than a lot of rock bands." In 2006, Bono promoted a red iPod for his Product (Red) charity scheme.
So what happened? The falling out has never been publicly explained, but I have a theory on what happened.
Apple's board of directors fingered Fred Anderson, the former Apple CFO, in a probe over stock-options backdating at Apple. In a public statement, Anderson blamed Jobs. Things got messy, and Anderson resigned from the board after reaching a settlement with the SEC.
At that point, Anderson was already at Elevation helping make Bono, whose net worth is estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars, even richer. So Jobs wasn't just messing with Bono's pal; he was messing with his pocketbook.
It hardly squares with the Irish rocker's saintly save-the-children image, does it?
http://valleywag.gawker.com/5116142/bono-and-steve-jobs-no-longer-bffs
RE: Bono and Steve Jobs No Longer BFFs
HA HA HA!
HA HA HA!
HA HA HA!
Oh, my sides hurt!
HA HA HA!
HA HA HA!
HA HA HA!
Snort!
Giggle.
RE: Bono and Steve Jobs No Longer BFFs
> "HA HA HA!"...
I recognize that laugh. It's the same one as when a certain handheld device family was totally eclipsed by another...
The Newton was toast, never updated by Apple, all the buzz was about new Palm handheld's, thousands of developers were rushing to put their apps on PalmGear...
Laugh at Apple... Laugh at Palm...
...when will it be time to laugh at Apple again? (ans: when Steve in no longer running it).
RE: Bono and Steve Jobs No Longer BFFs
This is why even Wall Street is in trouble when "analysts" have trouble with history.
For all intents and purposes, the Treos were the FIRST (popular) smartphones. And it wasn't switching to the smartphone that killed Palm, it was pulling an Apple-ish Cop-no-land that killed Palm.
Didn't help that an MBA is running the ship, and we know all MBAs are only good for milking cows, not breeding better ones.
Palm III -> Sony NR610C -> Sony NR70 -> Sony NX80 -> Palm T|X -> HTC Kaiser -> HTC Fuze
RE: Bono and Steve Jobs No Longer BFFs
If this person has any actual evidence that anything he said was true, he should present it along with sources. Otherwise, he's just lying and spinning a fairy tale for the gullible.
RE: Bono and Steve Jobs No Longer BFFs
This should be the definition next to "Mainstream Media" in Wikipedia and all dictionaries. Noe exceptions to the propaganda.
Pat Horne
RE: Bono and Steve Jobs No Longer BFFs
This is why even Wall Street is in trouble when "analysts" have trouble with history.
For all intents and purposes, the Treos were the FIRST (popular) smartphones. And it wasn't switching to the smartphone that killed Palm, it was pulling an Apple-ish Cop-no-land that killed Palm.
CORRECTION: HANDSPRING built the Treo line. Palm's first (and only) cell phone (before devouring Handspring) was basically a Tungsten C with a GSM radio for the Cingular network. Their smarts were so good that they didn't even build a MICROPHONE into the thing - you needed to keep a microphone cord plugged in to talk. Epic fail. But they WERE able to pickup Handspring for a song and now have the Treo. Without it they would have been stuck building only PDAs, and we know how THAT's going for them.
Basically, Palm has relied on other companies for innovations and design breakthroughs (color screen, external memory, smartphones, advanced navigation, etc.) as they can't seem to design a bird with more than one wing.
Fortunately, they've had enough ca$h to buy a few companies, but that's little indication of design prowess. Maybe these ex-Apple flunkies have brought some brains and courage to their design operations. CES should show us if it's Fooleo II time, or if Palm finally has gotten a clue after all these years.
RE: Bono and Steve Jobs No Longer BFFs
nice analogy!
RE: $99 iPhone!
I wonder which one will sell better, if you have to be stuck with AT&T's service and rates to get the "deal"...
RE: $99 iPhone!
ROTFLAMO!!!!
RE: $99 iPhone!
my sprint unlimited simply everything plan is $99/month. unlimited everything - voice, data, text, gps etc. all for $99/month.
the at&t iphone unlimited plan is 50% more - $150/month!!!! plus taxes!!!
verizon's unlimited plan is much more expensive too.
i'll never give up my sprint plan for highway robbery by at&t or verizon.
my sprint centro does everything i need and does it simply, easily, powerfully, all in a small package, and cheap.
RE: $99 iPhone!
Hey, aren't you the eejit who likes to spout, "You get what you pay for?"
Enjoy that teeny-weeny-screeny on your toy Centro.
Palm-Dell Prediction
8. Palm-Dell
Palm [PALM 3.21 0.11 (+3.55%) ] gets acquired by Dell [DELL 10.65 -- UNCH (0) ] and the companies work together on Dell's entry into the smart phone market. If that happens early enough in the year, look for Dell to make an announcement by the end of the year that it's withdrawing its plans to enter the smart phone market, turning its deal with Palm into a total write-off.
RE: Palm-Dell Prediction
And the three blind mice of Depression 2.0.
RE: Palm-Dell Prediction
RE: Palm-Dell Prediction
1. instant plug in to major carriers worldwide. instant presence into the smartphone market.
2. instant smartphone product line and pipeline (both Palm OS, NOVA, and WinMob).
3. complimentary to services strategy.
4. differentiator to HP and IBM and other competitors. tie in phone plan? subsidize laptops/netbooks a la phone package?
5. potential to fight Apple in that space and get some own halo effect with a good product.
6. PALM market cap is relatively CHEEEEEEEAAAAAPPPPPPPPPP. Mikey Dell can buy Palm with the change between his couch cushions.
not saying it will happen or that it makes sense, but why it's possible.
RE: Palm-Dell Prediction
How much would Palm cost Dell again?
RE: Palm-Dell Prediction
~$350M + ~20% premium = ~$420M given today's stock price and they buy the whole shebang and are instantly in the smartphone business the next day - no fuss, no muss - and for cheap. they could probably use some Dell stock too as part of the transaction.
IF Dell wants to get into the smartphone business, this would be a quick and easy way to do it. they see what it's doing for Apple - they may want to follow.
RE: Palm-Dell Prediction
[let's see...I think we're up to a billion dollars or so now for a buyout, right?...]
RE: Palm-Dell Prediction
1. If Dell wanted to get into smartphones, their most typical move would be to undercut prices on unlocked phones, ala the new Android models that are going to be released by Kogan. Doing that doesn't require them to buy Palm: in fact, buying Palm would be extremely counterproductive since it would saddle them with a carrier-based model and a high overhead cost that doesn't make the famed Dell efficiency profitable.
2. Palm's product line is well behind where any new device design would be, with the possible exception of the Treo Pro.
3. Palm has no services.
6. Whether cheap or not (as noted), Palm's market cap buys them what? An ailing product line and an as-yet untested platform.
RE: Palm-Dell Prediction
>I don't see Dell making a smartphone. Their reasons for not jumping blindly into the market were good enough back then, and they're still sound. While the new utility of unlocked phones makes their normal business model more viable, they'd still be going against their normal operating proceedure.
uh...have you seen their stock performance over the last 10 years? vs. HP? vs. Apple? they need to "go against their normal opertaing procedure" and look at new revenue streams and new business models and new growth areas. status quo isn't cutting it anymore. no one said jump in blindly - but maybe buy their way in with an established player with the relationships and infrastructure built.
>1. If Dell wanted to get into smartphones, their most typical move would be to undercut prices on unlocked phones, ala the new Android models that are going to be released by Kogan. Doing that doesn't require them to buy Palm: in fact, buying Palm would be extremely counterproductive since it would saddle them with a carrier-based model and a high overhead cost that doesn't make the famed Dell efficiency profitable.
unlocked phones leaves out two of the big three in the U.S. - Verizon and Sprint. not sure that's smart. carrier-based models is the reality in the U.S. I don't see Dell starting this venture outside the U.S. before inside.
>2. Palm's product line is well behind where any new device design would be, with the possible exception of the Treo Pro.
no arguments there but perhaps with Dell's R&D and vast resources, they could make something happen. and yes, contrary to popular belief, Dell does have a huge R&D budget - go look it up.
>3. Palm has no services.
never said Palm did. but if Dell adds their own smartphones to their product arsenal they could possibly develop new bundled all-encompassing communications services for business and consumers that we can't even imagine today.
>6. Whether cheap or not (as noted), Palm's market cap buys them what? An ailing product line and an as-yet untested platform.
see above.
again, i'm not saying this will or should happen, and not even that it's probable, just saying out why it's possible - albeit remote.
RE: Palm-Dell Prediction
What Palm needs is stability and some fresh ideas and faces, which nearly any of the proposed suitors might provide. Teaming up with Playskool and Crayola to design the Centros was a noble effort, but it wasn't enough.
Archos?
Any scuttlebutt?
What I look forward to in 2009 is the jetBook getting ePub capability:
http://mikecane2008.wordpress.com/2008/12/27/micro-fondle-2-ectaco-jetbook-ebook-reader/
Not that'd help much the frikkin sorry state of mass eBook adoption:
http://mikecane2008.wordpress.com/2008/12/27/the-zero-gravity-toilet-of-adobe-drmed-epub/
RE: Archos?
The more eBooks I see, the more I like good old paperbound books.
RE: Archos?
I'm sure you also pine for monochrome TV and a rabbit ear antenna.
NEXT!
RE: Archos?
February 2009 is right around the corner - rabbit-ear antennas will rule.
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Throwing good money after bad?