SEC Filing Details Palm Buyout Offers

An interesting new report has been posted by Engadget giving a plethora of hints as to the drama leading up to last month's Palm acquisition news courtesy of the recent SEC filing. HP is the only company named but anyone with a bit of imagination and familiarity with recent Palm history can likely surmise most of the other suitors.

Some of the highlights from the story include a rather abrupt timeframe leading up to the close of the deal. Likely spurred on by the upcoming grim earnings announcement and the dismal Verizon webOS launch, Palm commenced efforts in early February to investigate strategic partnerships, webOS licensing, and an outright sale of the company. By early March, the ironic 10-year anniversary of Palm's hotly-anticipated IPO a decade ago, Palm's board determined that a sale of the company was the most favorable move, despite CEO Jon Rubinstein's proclamations otherwise as recently as less than a week prior to the HP acquisition.

After a more than monthlong bidding process and Ruby's statement to HP that it had to "significantly and immediately" improve its offer, HP upped the ante to $5.70/share, negotiated for a few days more, then proceeded to consummate the deal before publicly announcing it on April 28th.

With Palm's first-generation WebOS rollout seemingly in place with the AT&T Pre Plus now officially available in the USA, things will presumably become very quiet over the summer as HP works to assimilate Palm's technology, personnel, and corporate culture. Until then, we can be content with rumors of the "C40" and the "Hurricane" while awaiting continued webOS updates.

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Nokia and RIM will regret not buying Palm

Fake Jeff Hawkins @ 5/19/2010 9:38:06 PM # Q
Nokia and RIM each desperately need a modern smartphone OS. Palm was sitting there ripe for the picking, yet they passed on buying the company. WTF were they thinking?

FJH

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