HP To Buy Palm For $1.2 Billion 271
necro81 writes "Palm, Inc., which has struggled in recent months after making a splash with its Pre smartphone, will be bought by HP, the world's largest computer maker. The deal has been approved by both companies' boards, and should be wrapped up this summer. HP will get Palm for about $5.70/share (about 20% above today's closing price), or about $1.2 billion. That's a pretty good deal, considering that in the months following the launch of the Pre on Sprint's network, Palm's share price topped $16. But marketing blunders hindered the Pre's more widespread adoption on other carriers, and the company's very existence has recently seemed in doubt."
Doomed (Score:2, Insightful)
If the direction the quality of HP printers is heading is any indication, say goodbye to Palm.
They used to be the best. Now, I wouldn't touch one.
It's about the patents (Score:5, Insightful)
I wonder why... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's amazing the effect that one [youtube.com] creepy [youtube.com] girl [youtube.com] can have on a share price.
Seriously. That last one is the worst. Using a phone is like the transmigration of souls?
Boo. In fairness, it's not the girl's fault at all.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:A relief... (Score:1, Insightful)
Yeah. Won't fade away. Not like their entire calculator division that Carly-bitch shut down for several years, no way.
Sorry, but I can think of no worse news long-term than HP owning them -- every geek-attractive device they've ever made has been dumbed-down, discontinued, or otherwise trashed at some point. But I guess if disposable printers are your thing, they're a great company.
Re:Marketing blunders... (Score:2, Insightful)
By "marketing blunders", do they mean Palm's "The Most Pale Woman in the World" campaign? Because I've gotta say, she really didn't sell me on a Palm, or anything else.
Agreed. That's got to be one of the worst ad campaigns ever--worse than Microsoft's abominable Bill Gates/Jerry Seinfeld ads, even. Palm should have gone after their ad agency and demanded a refund.
Re:Doomed (Score:3, Insightful)
If the direction the quality of HP printers is heading is any indication
Yes, because god knows the only thing HP makes is printers, and therefore printers are the perfect barometer for how Palm will fair under their auspices...
Re:Doomed (Score:3, Insightful)
It is pretty much all they make. Its half the revenue of the company, and they sold all the interesting shit off as Agilent more than a decade ago. Now its crappy printers, crappy PCs, and some services to big businesses.
Re:A relief... (Score:5, Insightful)
I was worried Palm was just going to fade away.
Yup, now it's going to enjoy the same level of long term success as the Alpha, OpenVMS, Tru64...
Re:A relief... (Score:1, Insightful)
It kinda gets old reminding people of this: there is no money in servicing geeks. You people made it impossible because you are never pleased, so no one bothers anymore. You don't count. You did this to yourselves. Learn to live with it. Or I guess keep whining about it, it's entertaining, but it ain't never gonna change, chump.
Re:Doomed (Score:3, Insightful)
Say what you will but HP is one of very few that actually fully support Linux
Okay, I'll give them that. I guess I'm mostly dismayed by how far HP has fallen over the years. At one time, a person could count on anything he bought from them to be a good product, probably the best available. Beginning with the Carly Fiorina era, though, it's been all downhill for them. They don't even make all that great built-like-a-brick-shithouse test equipment that they built their reputation on anymore.
Hopefully... (Score:2, Insightful)
Long-forgotten opportunity (Score:2, Insightful)
I guess it was the 'shirts' that decided Palm's handwriting recognition was 'too valuable' to license...idiots. The time for using that had seemed passed, and nowdays with touch-screen oriented smartphones, it sounds like a good idea, again.
This sounds silly; but I STILL have a couple of Palm 5's around here. When I was a security guard, I could actually watch a line for activity, while writing on the Palm, without worrying about it being readable. I *SO* prefer it to the number-pad texting; it's so much faster and easy to learn.
Let's hope of all the treasures HP has found and lost, that the handwriting program is something they feel like licensing, cheaply, because it's darned useful, not hiding, because "they want to make all their money back". (This never happens, introducing scarcity: people work around it, instead).
So....GO HP!
Re:If IBM... (Score:3, Insightful)
Palm messed up a long time ago. They had the initial momentum, a great product, but then they failed to add anything to hardware or software for years, while iPaq and their kin came over and owned the higher end.
Palm owned this space, and messed up big time, when they could have ruled it all.
Re:Doomed (Score:2, Insightful)
Pay attention, fool. Agilent has the test equipment now.
Right. Agilent has the test equipment now, which means that HP no longer makes it. Fool.
And come on, do you really expect a $99 laser printer to work like a $3500 LaserJet original?
Of course not, but I expect a $99 inkjet printer I bought two years ago which only lasted about 18 months to work as well as the $99 inkjet printer I bought ten years ago which still works. Fool.
Sure it makes sense (Score:3, Insightful)
HP has finally realized that in addition to being in competition with Cisco/VMWare/EMC in the datacenter, they're also in competition with Apple in the consumer gadgetry department. This probably comes out of Apple passing Microsoft on the S&P 500 last week. This is actually a good thing. $1.2B isn't a big deal to get Palm's patent portfolio and add some phones to their product list as well.
It also means they have no intention of going down with the WinTel ship. They're going to make a fight of it.
I hope they come out with a decent ARM based Android slate. I won't be buying that Intel Atom+Windows 7 version.
too little, too late: (Score:5, Insightful)
Imagine if they launched their campaign with this commercial [youtube.com] instead. Palm's life would be SOOOO different.
Re:HP Reverse Telephone Notation (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually that will be great! We can finally get rid of those parentheses we put around the area code.
Re:HP still around? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It's about the patents (Score:3, Insightful)
Tablets with WebOS WOULD be slick as hell. My only concern is form factor. If they leave palm in control of form factors, etc. then I have no worries. But when is the last time that you saw an HP laptop with good stylings or, at very least, a form factor that makes sense? I don't trust HP with intelligently designed products. I think this is part of the reason why everyone really hoped that HTC would snag up Palm. HTC actually learns from their mistakes.
The best thing that can come out of this deal for Palm is access to all of HPs fabrication plants. This might open a ton of doors for what Palm can do and will help them turn profit. It's hard being the small guy and making profit. When you have Daddy Warbucks with his hand on your shoulder, things change a bit...
Re:Android... (Score:3, Insightful)
"Besides, FOSS is always better than proprietary in the long term."
Really? Does Linux have more apps or market share on the desktop? No?
I like FOSS but you have zero proof to back up your statement. You are going to count out the iPhone as well.
Well you can do what you want but if you are right then Palm has a great future.
Palm OS IS based on Linux and frankly it is the most open of platforms right now.
Heck the Palm Website included instructions on how to set up your phone so you could side load apps that where not in the App store!
But there is nothing like seeing people make grand sweeping statements that have no basis if fact.