Analyst says Palm burning through cash like it's going out of style

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.

[Fox @ Nov 5th 2008 7:30PM]

Palm OS 2 Late

[ybd @ Nov 6th 2008 4:26AM]

10/10

[Virtuous @ Nov 5th 2008 7:32PM]

Palm is going down. By the time Palm ships their next generation phone they'll be on life support.

[Aguiluz @ Nov 5th 2008 8:28PM]

\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.)

[Tony @ Nov 5th 2008 8:35PM]

FYI, jokes are meant to be funny.

[NutMac @ Nov 5th 2008 7:33PM]

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.

[Patrick @ Nov 5th 2008 8:30PM]

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...

[Mikeweezer @ Nov 5th 2008 9:36PM]

Yea... but then everyone would've said 'Who really wants Android? It is something Palm uses...'

[Churma @ Nov 5th 2008 7:36PM]

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!!!

[qrius @ Nov 6th 2008 1:54AM]

they don't have the developer headcount to work on it.

[Leindurstit @ Nov 5th 2008 7:43PM]

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.

[Benson @ Nov 5th 2008 9:09PM]

Much as I hate to say it... you FAIL!

[Mikeweezer @ Nov 5th 2008 9:39PM]

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.

[iEye @ Nov 5th 2008 7:46PM]

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.

[Who Knows @ Nov 5th 2008 7:58PM]

The first part of your comment I like. The second part makes me say "FAIL".

[KAIKAI @ Nov 5th 2008 8:13PM]

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

[nolos @ Nov 5th 2008 8:25PM]

Holy crap! This is the first blog I have seen that iEye wasn't Low Ranked

[Valicore @ Nov 5th 2008 8:26PM]

Did Apple kill your family or something? What has HAPPENED to you iEye!?

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Nov 5th 2008 8:59PM]

Yeah, they'll do a Zune on the phone market. Really tear it up.

[cheng @ Nov 5th 2008 9:26PM]

would you believe if i sid i saw iEye being high ranked? it relly happened, believe it or not.
still no highest ranked though

[Ellianth @ Nov 5th 2008 10:12PM]

actually... he did get highest rank. lol

[digitallysick @ Nov 5th 2008 7:58PM]

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?

[gfar @ Nov 5th 2008 8:08PM]

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.

[catapults.music @ Nov 5th 2008 8:00PM]

Anyone else initially think the title said ". . . Palin burning through cash . . . ?"

[Dan @ Nov 5th 2008 8:07PM]

;)

[sachs.rs @ Nov 5th 2008 8:47PM]

I know I did ...

[Dan @ Nov 5th 2008 8:03PM]

My 700p Still rocks!!!!


700p4verizon - The Treonaut

[iEye @ Nov 5th 2008 8:11PM]

I saw a palm m100 in a radioshack junk bin for $9.99...

...$9 too expensive... I walked away...

[Dan @ Nov 5th 2008 8:14PM]

Are you a j*****s?

The m100 is nothing like the 700.

[iEye @ Nov 5th 2008 8:19PM]

No $h!t Sherlock...

[derX @ Nov 5th 2008 8:35PM]

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.

[Benson @ Nov 5th 2008 9:21PM]

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.

[Valicore @ Nov 5th 2008 10:40PM]

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.

[jbcaro @ Nov 5th 2008 11:14PM]

I'm think'in jeepers will get the most mileage out of buying the e's.

[pizzadebarr @ Nov 6th 2008 11:30AM]

@ Valicore: Thank you for providing an example for the definition of "jackass".

[Badger_badger_badger @ Nov 6th 2008 2:22PM]

@Benson

"it's certainly not an offensive vulgarity." lol wut

1. go to boss
2. call him a jackass
3. ????
4. PROFIT

[Valicore @ Nov 5th 2008 8:30PM]

Hmm... fucking Palm. It's sad that they went from revolutionary to vaporware provider. How could they have fucked up so bad?

[spam_free @ Nov 5th 2008 9:58PM]

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.

[Bob-o @ Nov 5th 2008 8:56PM]

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.

[Valicore @ Nov 5th 2008 11:38PM]

Good catch.

[Esteban @ Nov 22nd 2008 10:23AM]

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

[geekpower @ Nov 5th 2008 8:58PM]

I was certain it said "Palin burning through cash." I could only think of her amazing wardrobe choices in the last few weeks.

[DaLa @ Nov 5th 2008 9:07PM]

iPhone iWin

[Peter @ Nov 5th 2008 9:07PM]

is it Jesus?

[Peter @ Nov 5th 2008 9:10PM]

...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!

[Peter @ Nov 5th 2008 9:12PM]

What the fµck is wrong with your comment system!?! I pressed the fµcking reply button!!!!!

[chefgon_ign @ Nov 6th 2008 10:23AM]

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.

[nick @ Nov 5th 2008 9:17PM]

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.

[Valicore @ Nov 5th 2008 11:30PM]

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.

[jdlsantos @ Nov 5th 2008 9:40PM]

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.