Palm selling this week?

Alright, Palm, your days of making incrementally improved, merely evolutionary Treos may finally be numbered. Or not, depending on how your new owner wants to roll, but either way, rumors have now gone from a simmer to a full boil that a Palm sale is imminent. Like, seriously imminent -- Morgan Stanley, which Palm hired to court suitors, allegedly wants to get a deal sealed by March 22. The company -- which rose to stardom as a division of USRobotics and 3Com and made a huge splash in the then-budding smartphone market -- is now a shadow of its former self thanks largely to a split which saw its software division ultimately getting bought by Japan's ACCESS. Be that as it may, word has it the sale should command $20 a share -- a healthy premium over Palm's recent pricing -- and at least four companies are rumored to have interest: Nokia (could we finally see that Symbian-powered Treo?), Motorola, and a pair of private investment firms. We wish you the best of luck, Palm; there's definitely a certain sentimental value associated with your name these days, and we hope your new owners do what it takes to get you back on the straight and narrow. Keep pluggin' away at that WiMAX handset!

[Ray @ Mar 20th 2007 12:30PM]

Personally, I expect it to get about $21 per share

[Sramana Mitra @ Mar 20th 2007 1:47PM]

I am surprised that Dell isn't bidding:
http://www.sramanamitra.com/blog/642

[Sramana Mitra @ Mar 20th 2007 4:15PM]

Okay, I figured it out:
http://sramanamitra.com/blog/727

[SHoe @ Mar 20th 2007 4:32PM]

>>could we finally see that Symbian-powered Treo?

Ughhh. I f'in hope not. I hate Symbian OS about as much as I hate the average generic, non-smartphone setup. That's because the only way they managed to become the number one 'smartphone' OS was by making devices that pretened that they are just that: generic, 'dumb-phones' - right down to the crap interface that screams '25 years ago, this was what 65 year old scandanavian engineers thought a phone interface should be'.
Jee-sus!
Whats the bloody point?

[Z @ Mar 21st 2007 9:01PM]

Dear Palm,

BYE!

[Glen @ Mar 23rd 2007 6:55PM]

I am often curious at the seeming hatred displayed by people adding comments to this site with regard to Palm. Palm invented the concept of truely mobile computing. Why do so many people love to hate them? The Treo line is easy to use, powerful, rugged (in my experience - my old 650 survived a full cup of coffee with cream and sugar dumped over it as well as many tumbles) and has tons of really useful apps available for free or next to free.

I am not a Microsoft hater, I just like Palm OS better. Microsoft could use to read a page from Palm's "book":
Neo Zen
Zen

Palm after all has "fixed" a number of WinMobile issues regarding ease of use with the WM 5 Treos although I think they still could go farther (I don't claim to be a WinMobile master - I don't own a WM device).

In the end, it doesn't matter who buys Palm; if they trash the product line, they will have thrown the investors money down the drain. This is not a buy and destroy plan by Palm. Nokia NEEDS Palm to add a truely useful smartphone product (E series? - nice try but no thanks). Motorola NEEDS Palm to expand it's credibility in the smartphone market. The financial firms? They would be complete idiots to dismantle a brand of this caliber. The Palm and Treo brands are recognizable plus they represent a strong product family and history. It is possible that the Palm brand might die, but any marketing guy worth his $100,000+ salary should know not to destroy a brand like Treo.

We will see... Will the BUYERS of Palm be as smart as the phones they promote?