In an unexpected announcement today, HP revealed that they have come to an agreement to acquire Palm for about $1.2 billion.
It has been rumored that Palm is being put on sale for several weeks now and that HTC or Lenovo is looking into a deal. HP coming in and scooping up Palm is a surprise but it’ a move that made some sense.
HP and Palm made this joint release today:
HP and Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which HP will purchase Palm, a provider of smartphones powered by the Palm webOS mobile operating system, at a price of $5.70 per share of Palm common stock in cash or an enterprise value of approximately $1.2 billion. The transaction has been approved by the HP and Palm boards of directors
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Palm’s last ditch effort to survive the competitive smartphone market did not panned out well, a market it once dominated. Palm’s flagship handset, the Pre, and its completely new mobile operating system, WebOS, temporarily took the headlines but failed to sustain the excitement and momentum.
On the other hand, HP’s also been doing the iPaq smartphone for some time already but has not really made any developments in the mobile space for awhile and making an impression its giving up in that department. Acquiring Palm surely changes that perception.