FTC OK's Palm Equity Sale

The AP is reporting that the Federal Trade Commission has approved Elevation Partners $325 million purchase of a 25% stake in Palm Inc., without imposing any conditions.

The Federal Trade Commission included the Elevation-Palm deal on a list of transactions Thursday that received an "early termination" of their antitrust review. Early termination refers to the completion of a review before the end of a 30-day waiting period specified under antitrust law.

The deal, announced last month, includes the sale of 25% stake in Palm for $325 million and a new $400 million loan to finance a new recapitalization plan that will pay out a $9.00 per share cash distribution to stockholders.

In addition, Jon Rubinstein, former senior vice president of hardware engineering and head of the iPod division at Apple, is joining Palm as executive chairman of the board. Fred Anderson and Roger McNamee, managing directors and co-founders of Elevation, will also join Palm's board of directors upon closing of the transaction. Rubinstein, Anderson, and McNamee will replace Eric Benhamou and D. Scott Mercer, who will resign from Palm's board of directors at that time.

The deal is expected to be put to a shareholder vote at a special meeting to follow later this summer.

More Stories Like This...

Former Danger and Helio Design Director Now at Palm
Verizon Treo 755p Update Released
Palm Q4 FY08 Conference Call Highlights
Palm Reports Q4 and FY 2008 Results
Google Maps My Location Feature Available Tomorrow
Unlocked Palm Centro Now Available in the US
More articles about Palm