Palm's 10-K filing reveals smaller acquisitions, reads like a mystery novel

So Palm, what exactly have you been up to lately? Besides pumping out that tired, ho hum 800w, of course. The snoopers over at monoNews went and dug through your latest 10-K filing, and it seems as if that noteworthy Elevation Partners deal wasn't the only agreement you were wrapped up in during the past little while. As a matter of fact, we're seeing that during February of 2007, you "acquired the assets of two sole proprietorships [at a cost of $19.2 million] focused on mobile computing and media devices, one a developer of user interface environments and the other a developer of email software applications." Oh, and in October of last year, you "acquired substantially all of the assets [for $500,000] of a corporation focused on developing solutions to enhance the performance of web applications." Curiously, you nonchalantly failed to mention any names, but it's pretty clear that those new pick-ups weren't utilized in the last 16 months or so.

[Via mocoNews, image courtesy of DayLife]

[wireless.nemo @ Jul 28th 2008 7:38AM]

Reading through this made me think that Palm has a glimmer of hope to survive the handset market. Then I read the last sentence and I spit up my drink :lol:

Unless Palm has enough funds to take loss after loss until they can come out with an iPhone/BlackBerry Bold/Thunder/HTC Touch Pro competitor (cause lets be serious, that's what they're going to need if they want to survive), they're only postponing the inevitable.

[OziD @ Jul 28th 2008 11:33AM]

apparently you missed the 30 posts on here in the last few months that detailed their market share increase since the release of the centro.

[nDee @ Jul 28th 2008 8:22PM]

But Centro is just like stuffs from WalMart,
they need something like a new OS to grab everyone's sight

[dualtrx @ Jul 28th 2008 7:47AM]

Who cares ?! ... i Don't

[cesium @ Jul 28th 2008 10:34AM]

iHateYou

[Frank @ Jul 28th 2008 11:37AM]

iDiot

[Freakin Ijit @ Jul 28th 2008 7:42AM]

This is non-news. Dinky-company acquisitions (Chattermail et al) by Palm are well-discussed on Palm-oriented message boards like TreoCentral.

[ahdok @ Jul 28th 2008 8:12AM]

Harsh engadget... Harsh.

Probably also true however.

[ahdok @ Jul 28th 2008 8:12AM]

Harsh mr. Engadget, Harsh.

Probably true though.

[OnlyShawn @ Jul 28th 2008 8:20AM]

the "developer of email software applications" is marc blank, developer of chatteremail, the only thing that's keeping me on my treo. It gives blackberry-like push capabilities to any imap email w/ and IDLE server (including gmail). Palm purchased it...and it's languished. Not that it was broken before it was purchased, but there has been one update, and no new code has found its way in.

[TheGasMan @ Jul 28th 2008 8:21AM]

"Curiously, you nonchalantly failed to mention any names, but it's pretty clear that those new pick-ups weren't utilized in the last 16 months or so."
You know they're developing other products, right? This is much more likely to be related to their Linux OS.

They wouldn't be buying a company that specializes in user interface environments or enhancing performance of web applications if they were using this for a Palm OS and Windows Mobile product.

[DR0D @ Jul 28th 2008 8:25AM]

You guys are way behind the curve
The two acquisitions in Feb07 were assets of Chattermail and Pixio

The founders of the two companies (Marc Blank and Paul Mercer respectively) went on to become employees of Palm.

This was widely discussed back then.

[DR0D @ Jul 28th 2008 8:26AM]

You guys are way behind the curve
The two acquisitions in Feb07 were assets of Chattermail and Pixio

The founders of the two companies (Marc Blank and Paul Mercer respectively) went on to become employees of Palm.

This was widely discussed back then.

[John De Vries Ralph @ Jul 28th 2008 8:47AM]

this was all discussed back in the beginning of the year. where you guys been?

[7on @ Jul 28th 2008 9:49AM]

I think there was a WWDC around then so Engadget didn't acknowledge the existence of other companies.

[dj-kenpo @ Jul 28th 2008 9:09AM]

if palm uses android they have a chance of still being in the hardware game.

but software? sorry. given the idea of iphone rim, symbian, or android os, there's just not room for another palm os that most likely will not get updated.

they showed their colors, I have no faith in them.

[dhowse @ Jul 28th 2008 10:10AM]

You mean Palm isn't dead yet?

[crow610 @ Jul 28th 2008 12:55PM]

It's kinda like watching Friday the 13th.

[bazzz @ Jul 28th 2008 10:51AM]

Still enough money for that Porsche 911, Type 993 in the background ;)

[drumstyk1 @ Jul 28th 2008 10:52AM]

i know a few people eagerly awaited the treo 800w... more so than i know people that own iphones. I don't understand the mob mentality that seems to be common among engadget-ers. People on other sites don't react the same way. hrm, to each his own i guess but i love reading palm news.

[Bill @ Jul 28th 2008 1:20PM]

I know one thing that's keeping Palm alive, at least for me: coverage. I really want an iPhone 3G, but my wife and daughter had to cancel their AT&T iPhone contracts when we moved to a new house where there's no usable AT&T (or T-Mobile, I tried it) coverage. Verizon is all over it, though. I don't know whether it's a lack of towers, or whether CDMA just handles hilly areas better (I'll bet the latter, but I'm biased).

Given my personal distaste for WinMo, and need for a smartphone rather than a feature phone, that brings it down to Palm and Blackberry. VZ gave me a Centro for free (new every two plus online ordering discounts) for re-upping. Maybe in two years there'll be something I like better that has adequate coverage. Meanwhile, there's still a ton of Palm software out there to play with.

[John @ Jul 28th 2008 2:40PM]

My Palm Centro does EVERYTHING my iPhone does faster and better. Maybe not prettier, but BETTER!

Email - Check
Attachements - Check (wav, doc, ppt, xls, jpg, etc)
Music - Check
A2DP - Check (Using Softick Audio Gateway)
Web - Way faster than iPhone even using 802.11. Opera Mini if I want it a little prettier
You Tube - Check (Many other video/audio options through Kinoma Player)
Facebook - Check
Copy & Paste - Check
Shortcuts - Check (Nothing beats a Palm here)
Ringer Off - Check (Not just the ringer, alerts & alarms too)
Office Documents - Check

If Palm can put a prettier interface on a stable OS, they will definitely be back in the game. I personally don't think a thinner wider phone is any better but if that's what the people want, that's what Palm should give them.

I would throw in some good marketing too. The iPhone is proof that marketing sells not functionality.

[lanejasper69 @ Jul 28th 2008 4:06PM]

I don't blame them, I wouldn't "brag" about buying a pinto or Gremlin either. LOL


Been not-so-nice knowing you Palm. You should have taken REO SpeedWagons's advice and "Rolled with the changes" LOL

[Marc @ Jul 28th 2008 7:09PM]

As the earlier poster pointed out, this news is over a year old... And yes, Palm is alive.

Marc