Palm sells 25% stake to Bono and former Apple execs

The wires are alight with news that Palm will be announcing a deal to sell a 25% stake to Elevation Partners. The private equity firm where Bono is a founding partner will shell-out $325 million for the privilege of helping Palm reorganize. Jon Rubinstein, Apple's retired head of hardware -- yes, that hardware -- joins Palm as executive chairman to head up product development while Apple's former CFO Fred Anderson -- yes, that Fred Anderson -- joins Palm's board of directors. Palm's current Chairman, Eric Benhamou, and board director D. Scott Mercer would then step down assuming shareholders approve the deal. Sure, it's not the sale that many had hoped for, but at least we can look forward to a new limited edition black and red Foleo which is somethin'.

Update: It's official, see the press release for all the recapitalization gore.

[Via MocoNews]

[Totalfixation @ Jun 4th 2007 4:18AM]

cool, glad i held onto the stocks.

[Keith L. Dick @ Jun 4th 2007 4:33AM]

Hmmm, is this going to become a "u2-iPalm" Branded Product that ends up competing with the iPhone?. The outcome of this should be very interesting.

[djbarry @ Jun 4th 2007 5:02AM]

This makes me think Foleo will be make to work with iPhone.

[brutha @ Jun 4th 2007 5:10AM]

"how to dismantle a phone co.?"......

[Geoffrey Sneddon @ Nov 11th 2007 4:56AM]

No, "The Phone Co."

[Mark Bowness @ Jun 4th 2007 5:56AM]

This should be an interesting move and an interesting one to follow!

Mark Bowness

[tekdroid @ Jun 4th 2007 6:45AM]

at last, a u2-branded Foleo.

[Rob @ Jun 4th 2007 10:37AM]

Sonny Bono still owns stock in companies?

[Sramana Mitra @ Jun 4th 2007 12:25PM]

I am not writing Palm off quite yet. My analysis is here: http://sramanamitra.com/blog/1085.

[Kevin Williams @ Jun 4th 2007 5:11PM]

Well, one thing is for sure. We can probably count on palm not having any earthshaking partnership agreements with Apple going forward. Anderson just may have burned some bridges after he left.

[Joe @ Jun 4th 2007 12:33PM]

I wouldn't want this stock in my portFOLIO that's for sure.

[Aaron @ Jun 4th 2007 1:21PM]

I think this may mark some real innovation starting to slowly leak back into Palm. At least Bono will be able to ask: "What the %$#@ where you thinking with that Folio crap?"

I'd trust an artist (or group of artist) to be able to bring some design umph back to Palm before some stuffed shirts who've spent their lives pushing papers.

[craig @ Jun 4th 2007 1:21PM]

A number of ex-Apple buying into the decaying carcass hoping to resurrect it with the same ideas as its old employer, much as Handspring did with its lame Visor before being reabsorbed after a single good idea in the Treo. You know what's coming...iPhone competitors based on BSD/Linux and hip ads. They are one-trick ponies.

[frogbat @ Jun 4th 2007 2:07PM]

or it could be steve jobs sending in his cronies to make sure one of his competitors doesn't get a chance to compete...

[John Doe @ Jun 4th 2007 3:49PM]

"or it could be steve jobs sending in his cronies to make sure one of his competitors doesn't get a chance to compete..."

You’re kidding right? Palm's biggest competition in the last 7 years has been itself. The people at that company, or more accurately the execs, are retarded.
Palm couldn’t compete even if they traveled 10 years into the future and brought back the most awesome hardware ever. Invariably they would try and stuff Garnet onto it, rebrand it with the world’s shittiest name, and market it as a PMP instead of a PDA or smartphone. Not only would it be useless with Garnet on it but no one would know about it because, again, the execs at Palm are retards.

[frogbat @ Jun 4th 2007 6:14PM]

erm yeah was kiddin - tho from the little i understand the big players in the smartphone arena are nokia, rim blackberry and palm with the treo range and the others who make pocketpc devices

[Martin @ Jun 4th 2007 2:56PM]

rob wrote "Sonny Bono still owns stock in companies?"

not that Bono :-)

[John Doe @ Jun 4th 2007 3:42PM]

Why do this article resurrect the episode where Bart sells his angry dad idea to an internet startup. They point him to the toilet paper roll of stock on the wall. POS isn't just short for Palm OS anymore.

I would love to see this move bring Palm back to life but frankly I not overly confident.

[Sumitra Menon @ Jun 6th 2007 2:10AM]

Is most of the media now writing Palm off? Leading Silicon Valley entrepreneur and strategy consultant Sramana Mitra evaluates why. She discusses

[Sumitra Menon @ Jun 6th 2007 2:42AM]

Is most of the media now writing Palm off? Leading Silicon Valley entrepreneur and strategy consultant Sramana Mitra evaluates why. She discusses the changing prospects of Palm after the joining of John Rubinstein, the famous Apple executive, as its executive chairman.
Link: http://sramanamitra.com/blog/1085