Analyst says Palm burning through cash like it's going out of style
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Nov 5th 2008 7:18PM
posted Nov 5th 2008 7:18PM
Stock downgrades are nothing new for the boys and girls at Palm, but analyst Tavis McCourt of Morgan Keegan (which certainly sounds like an important and all-knowing firm) has painted a particularly bleak picture of the company's books today -- so grim, in fact, that it set off a 20 percent drop in the company's market cap. Apparently the big concern is Palm's cash burn rate, which has left a cash reserve of just under a quarter billion dollars through a series of delays and setbacks that have been partially offset by moderate successes like the Centro. McCourt figures that'll be down to a mere $75 million by the time Palm OS 2 launches, and that's assuming they don't run into any more slips in the schedule. He notes that Bono can always just flip 'em a few more mil out of his Joshua Tree earnings, but it'll end up diluting existing shareholders' stakes, hence the massive drop in value today. No pressure, Palm.
Palm OS 2 Late
10/10
Palm is going down. By the time Palm ships their next generation phone they'll be on life support.
\I once took a job as a janitor, gone to hospital room, then I unplugged someone's life support and plug in the floor polisher. Ooops!
(Note: Just a joke. I don't want law enforcement showing up at my house.)
FYI, jokes are meant to be funny.
How the mighty has fallen. These days, Palm isn't even in most phone buyer's radar. Palm should've embraced and released Android devices before anyone.
i agree...palm is kinda like a lil brudder (homestar runner...learn it): its hilarious but also slightly pathetic, making you feel sorry for it...
Yea... but then everyone would've said 'Who really wants Android? It is something Palm uses...'
Where Palm really FAILS is they still don't have a Vista x64 driver. Hey Palm either die or write drivers to support your products!!!
they don't have the developer headcount to work on it.
All your FAIL are belong to us at Failmoore.edu. Come FAIL with us. FAIL the friendly BLOGOSPHERE INTERNET MEME. Unoriginal people. FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL.
Much as I hate to say it... you FAIL!
I just love it when people say FAIL! It is so funny, NOT!
...please stop - FAIL (like appending NOT) has run it's course. Time to move on.
I just wish that Microsoft would go into the hardware business and just end all of these poor products once and for all.
Take mobile OS and do what Apple does, make a device with known specs and run with it. Big touch screen, every radio crammed in there, slide out QWERTY no fancy lines. Business only no pink or red versions. Black, white or silver, gunmetal grey. No other choices. And screw supporting other devices and just let them die out.
The first part of your comment I like. The second part makes me say "FAIL".
i dont know
that is a good idea
*cough cough* iphone
just make sure to hype it beyond need :)
congrats ieye
your first sensible post on this fine tech blog :D
Holy crap! This is the first blog I have seen that iEye wasn't Low Ranked
Did Apple kill your family or something? What has HAPPENED to you iEye!?
Yeah, they'll do a Zune on the phone market. Really tear it up.
would you believe if i sid i saw iEye being high ranked? it relly happened, believe it or not.
still no highest ranked though
actually... he did get highest rank. lol
My 700p Still rocks!!!!
700p4verizon - The Treonaut
I saw a palm m100 in a radioshack junk bin for $9.99...
...$9 too expensive... I walked away...
If i were to make a cell phone, qwerty, bluetooth, 3g, wifi, 8 megapixel cam, sd slot, and a decent os, what more could you want?
Based on most cell phone comments these days, I'd say people want a touch screen and a handy 1 click store that let's you spend 10 bucks on crap applications without thinking it through first.
Anyone else initially think the title said ". . . Palin burning through cash . . . ?"
;)
I know I did ...
Are you a j*****s?
The m100 is nothing like the 700.
No $h!t Sherlock...
j*****s?
I'd like to buy a vowel. An "e," please.
---
Seriously, it took me a while to figure out what that was: more clues.
If you think there's an 'e' in it... jeckess, maybe?
Though why anyone would censor "jackass" is beyond me. The word ass for donkey goes back to Old English assa, meaning the same.
The word ass for posterior, principally an Americanism, is derived from arse, which goes back to Old English ærs, with meaning unchanged. They're completely separate words, and while calling someone a jackass, i.e. a male donkey, is not very complimentary, it's certainly not an offensive vulgarity.
Thanks for the lesson in historical linguistics/English philology. Unfortunately you managed to be incredibly boring and patronizing at the same time. Did it take you long to copy and paste that? If you actually wrote that out from your own brain stores, it's still boring and patronizing.
I'm think'in jeepers will get the most mileage out of buying the e's.
@ Valicore: Thank you for providing an example for the definition of "jackass".
@Benson
"it's certainly not an offensive vulgarity." lol wut
1. go to boss
2. call him a jackass
3. ????
4. PROFIT
Hmm... fucking Palm. It's sad that they went from revolutionary to vaporware provider. How could they have fucked up so bad?
The god awful amount of money they wasted on the Foleo should've been the writing on the wall. Does ANYONE at Palm even remotely attached to something we call reality? While everyone is making (and SELLING) phones that are multi-functioned, they go and develop a "companion" to a dumb phone that's the size of a netbook and costs as much. It's like selling a $100k trailer so your Porsche 911 can have a real trunk.
Dear Palm, it's call a clue. Get one. It's free.
Summary states:
> Apparently the big concern is Palm's cash burn rate, which has dwindled
> to just under a quarter billion dollars . . . McCourt figures that'll be down
> to a mere $75 million. . .
Do you not understand the difference between a burn rate and a balance?
If their burn rate was falling like your terribly constructed sentences indicate, that would be a good thing, maybe. It is their *balance* that is down to a quarter billion dollars, and perhaps $75 million, not their burn rate.
Good catch.
It seems that you, Bob-o, have found the power of taking things out of context...
>Apparently the big concern is Palm's cash burn rate, which has left a cash reserve of just under a quarter
>billion dollars through a series of delays and setbacks that have been partially offset by moderate successes
>like the Centro. McCourt figures that'll be down to a mere $75 million by the time Palm OS 2 launches
That little tid-bit in the middle that you so conveniently left out shows that he is talking about the cash 'reserve' that will be down to $75 mil. Not the cash 'burn'. So when you go and bash on somebody, maybe you could make sure you are smart enough to comprehend meaning of sentences...
Ah, the wonders of citing text... jackass
I was certain it said "Palin burning through cash." I could only think of her amazing wardrobe choices in the last few weeks.
iPhone iWin
is it Jesus?
...meant for Dan
There really should be a delete comment option; and some way to login in so you don't have to re-type in email & password each time you leave a comment!
What the fµck is wrong with your comment system!?! I pressed the fµcking reply button!!!!!
It's because you're using Internet Explorer. For some reason, AOL doesn't think it's worth their time to support the most commonly used browser on the internet so all their features are broken if you're using IE.
Palm really kind of had the rug pulled out from under them in the last few years. They got hit from all sides, HTC and their nice win mobile devices, RIM with excellent push/enterprise support, and Apple for trendy fashion accessory. Not trying to say Palm didn't have plenty of time to respond, just that in the last two years the market got much harder. Palm + Android would likely compete well with Moto, but it's more like a duel than a competition.
I wouldn't say they had the rug pulled out from under them... more like HTC and RIM and Apple were all in their brand new SUVs (Apple might have been in a hot Mini tho) and Palm decided to run a red light in a car made out of tin foil. The were destroyed. Then they took their tin foil car did a quick fix on it, through it out onto the road, and secretly started to work on their next product: the aluminum foil car. When they presented it and were told how lame it was, they went back weeping and have been pecking at their keyboards for the past 2 years trying to figure out a new foil to use that people would like. Meanwhile the other three have been working diligently, and every now and then they look up and see Palm and say to themselves "WTF is THAT guys problem"...
I was bored.
After Palm OS, Palm got lazy and never built on it. IMO they had the best OS, I owned a Treo 600 & 700 before I switched to WinMo because I grew tired of Palm lollygagging and not making other OS's. If OS 2 is something revolutionary I'll gladly go back.
Let me make things clear for you, Churma:
Palm=FAIL
Vista in any form=EPIC FAIL
Palm does not want to be EPIC FAIL, so they don't touch that stuff, really.
(and no, I'm not a Mac or PC)
Argh, dammit, that was meant to be a reply to Churma...
EPIC FAIL
@??? Vista=EPIC Fail, well it may not be the best but Microsoft is selling it and making money so I can't see where Vista is an EPIC Fail. Now back to Palm
Ed Colligan should have put to pasture a looooonnngggg time ago. Palm desperately needed a new President and CEO like 3 years ago.
Now, the only one who could resurrect that once great brand has left Earth to dwell with his heavenly father. And that man's name is . . . hey wait a minute— I'm an atheist!
Nobody can save Palm now.
Everyone is writing of Palm so fast without seeing what the next OS and new products can do. I wonder if you would have all prophesied Apple was going to die in '97 when they were in a similar position. Ask them what a new OS and products can do.
I wonder how many millions they lost in trying the Foleo, then canceling it?
To be fair, Palm has managed to hang in there for a lot longer than people have predicted. Their downfall has been assumed for at least five years now and they're still here in 2008 plugging away. I'd never buy one of their products but there's obviously still a market for them.
I think they'll outlast Motorola.