Report Claims Apple, RIM Also Bid for Palm

Posted By: Kris Keilhack Friday, July 16, 2010 3:27:20 PM

rim apple logos BusinessInsider has just posted a rather interesting article quoting an anonymous source "familiar with the negotiations" updating the May rumor about a bidding war for Palm based on Palm's SEC merger proxy filing with the anonymous references to companies A,B,C, and D.

The BusinessInsider piece adds some choice fuel to the rumor bonfire regarding details about the list of unsuccessful bidders for Palm. According to the report, apart from the usual suitors such as Lenovo and Google, Apple was as an interested bidder, as was RIM. RIM, in fact, supposedly even managed to outbid HP initially and "had to work incredibly hard to blow it". No claims about HTC or any of the other players referenced in the past such as Huawei, Nokia, Dell, or Motorola.

While webOS and Palm-style hardware would be decidedly out of touch with Apple's usual M.O., Palm's patent portfolio and various IP holdings would have been attractive to Apple if it could have picked up Palm for the reported $600 million cash offer. And while RIM is prepping BlackBerry OS 6 for launch later this year, webOS would definitely have helped the company transition to new device formfactors. If this week's Digital Daily report is accurate, RIM is facing waning enthusiasm for its handsets in light from newer, flashier offerings from Apple and Google, not to mention whatever HP and Palm are cooking up for the next-generation of webOS. A line of webOS-based tablets or subnotebooks from RIM featuring tight integration with the BlackBerry backend could have been quite beneficial down the road for the Canadian smartphone pioneer.

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