Courtesy of
Palm's most recent 8-K filing, the general public is being informed that Palm's former CEO Donna Dubinsky (pictured) is stepping down from the firm's board. If you'll recall,
Elevation Partners decided that it would fork over
another $100 million in order to help Palm stun the world and reinvigorate itself
at CES this year, and as part of that agreement, Elevation "has the right to designate an additional director for election to the Company's Board of Directors." In light of the board wishing to maintain its current size, Ms. Dubinsky freely offered to resign her spot immediately, and at least officially, her decision was not made due to any disagreement with Palm. We're also told that Elevation has designated Rajiv Dutta -- who retired as President of eBay Marketplaces and Executive VP of eBay last October -- for election to the company's board, and said board is expected to meet shortly to consider both the resignation offer and Mr. Dutta's appointment.
[Via
PalmInfoCenter, image courtesy of
NY Times]
posted February 4th 2009 7:12AM
oh my god....i cant see another India-bashing in these comments now. |-)
What?
these days, wherever i see a post related to India, I see people making fun of it, sorta bashing India for what it is. Thats what I meant.
What?
Someone is going to bash India because someone of Indian background filling a board seat at Palm. Take the chip off your shoulder.
If the CEO salary goes down with the appointment of Mr Rajiv Dutta, we'd have a point. Let's wait, then bash, if appropriate.
I would like to be on a board.... life is not fair.
No bashing here. I just think that the investors are desparate.
Anyway,palm will end up in the same position it was in with those treos.
They'll be bombarded with competition up the ass until they are indishtinguishable in an ever growing smart phone market.
So she's passing the torch? I guess if the future of Palm is the Pre, she really has no legacy to leave behind at the company. I would feel left out too.
I think her legacy is safe in the world of electronics. After having been part of the driving force behind the PDA and later the initial smartphones, perhaps she just wants to move on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Dubinsky
Very impressive.
Is the Difference Engine her retirement gift?
That's my question, too...
Why the difference/analytical engine in the background??
She's at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. I'm guessing from her tag that she's a docent/volunteer there.
That's the second Difference Engine MK II, built for Nathan Myhrvold's living room or sauna or wherever he's planning on putting it. It's on view through April, and if you have any possibility of getting there, I highly recommend checking it out. I drove from Los Angeles on a visit from NYC to see it for myself. The rest of the museum is great as well.
As big of a breakthrough the original Palm was, and to a lesser extent the Treo, Hawkins and Dubinsky have been left behind in the PDA/Smartphone realm. Their company was driven practically to the brink of death until Elevation Partners comes along and the Pre is developed. Hawkins seemed to think that the Foleo was a good idea when he presented it a couple of years ago. At this point, its probably the best thing for them to move on.
Wait. Is she attempting to compare her Palm to a Babbage Engine in that pic?
Doubt this will change how the company runs.
I sure hope NOTHING about how ebay is run, its policies, its customer servers or its technology gets integrated into Palm. Ebay/paypal is probably the worse large tech company ever to exist.
Ehh, customer *service*