Handspring Buys Bluelark Systems

Just a few weeks ago, Bluelark Systems released Blazer Personal Edition 1.0, a free Web browser for the Palm. Apparently, Handspring liked the browser so much, they bought the company. They will pay up to 450,000 Handspring shares (about $16 million) in a deal expected to close in the first quarter of 2001.

This is part of Handspring's plans to improve the wireless functionality of the Visor. A Handspring spokesman said that over the next three years 50% to 70% of Handspring's products will have some sort of wireless capability.

Plans call for Handspring to bundle Bluelark's applications into its new VisorPhone product early next year. BlueSky, Bluelark's core technology, is a customizable mobile application platform designed to give users access to a network-based "connected agent" that performs such tasks as converting Web sites for display on a small screen and simplifying mobile commerce.

This also nets for Handspring Bluelark Systems' highly-skilled engineers at a time when people with wireless technical knowledge are a hot commodity.