Things must be getting a little weird at Palm right now, as every day seems to add a new piece to an already confusing puzzle. In just two weeks' time the company has gone from a potential
free agent, to a
lone wolf, and then back to
prospective purchase. Adding more noise to the proceedings,
TechCrunch is now reporting that another senior staffer has hit the road, and this time it's Caitlin Spaan, Palm's VP of carrier marketing. Her name gets added to what looks like a
growing list of recent Palm departures (not to mention that entire marketing department we hear has been canned). More troubling than that news, however, is a rumor which also appears on
TC suggesting that CEO (and putative savior of the company)
Jon Rubinstein may be on his way out as well. This report is pure hearsay at this point, but if true would be a major admission on Palm's part that its plans to kickstart the ailing company nearly two years ago are failing (or have just plain failed). Of course, we need to stress that this is just rumor at this stage -- the company offered no comment to
Business Insider -- and until we get more solid word, it should be treated as such. As for us, we're hoping the company can pull something salvageable together from this mess and figure out a way to compete at a level of increasingly
more difficult stakes.
Update: Apparently Jon showed up in a room of developers at the company's currently-ongoing dev camp
and said "I'm still here," to big laughs. Hang in there, man!
posted April 23rd 2010 6:30PM
@cherryboom
No, f*** you cherryboom. You bitchasstroll...
Forcing her out would be slightly better news than if she jumped ship, after all she has an insider's view of the situation and she might see that it's so bad that she had to leave. If on the other hand she was forced out, then it could be seen as a slightly good sign that carrier marketing is going to be different (and hopefully better) moving forward.
Either way, the reality is that I am not surprised more companies aren't interested in Palm.
Forget about their current phone and OS for a second... Palm has a VERY lucrative portfolio of patents that any company in the mobile industry should be interested in having.
Prediction time:
If we hear that the CEO was forced out over the next few weeks, then that clearly means that the Board of Directors are changing direction of the company and will probably look for a CEO that is more open to simply selling the company. If John is replaced, then I would expect some kind of acquisition announcement not to long after the new CEO takes over.
Jon is doing a great job!!! WebOS is open because of his ideas! The reason HTC backed out because they have a deal to license it!! i'm telling you it's going to happen!
@namyboyz44 I want you to be rite, but common sense says LOL.
Hang on, Engadget, what's the source for the, "entire marketing department we hear has been canned," quote?
Are you referring to Modernista or Palm's internal marketing team?
Calm down all. This is just part of the plan to turn things around. She was probably getting paid way too much for a position whose tasks can be shared by other, including Rubenstein. This is what happens when things don't go well with the current structure. Its called reorganization.
@acraplegend Where is Mary Doyle's Form 4 filing.
@Freakin Ijit
http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewsecfiling/articleid/3735628
@acraplegend No, that's just a regular filing made months ago -where is HER "retention bonus filing"?
None has been made.
Why not?
@Freakin Ijit You obviously know. So lets hear it?
New Hardware.
@derekdevine Jon already said there is new hardware coming and the they are working on it "Fast and Furiously" lol
*sigh*.... Cmon palm. And Jon. I believe in you as a company and what you can do but it looks from out here like there is a rapid decay occurring wothin the walls of Palm. If you have a clear succinct vivid step by step of how this is all part of the plan you need to showcase itnow before the support you do have starts waning (I however am diehard). If you have no such plan, make one QUICK littered with gread decisions and options like bringing HTC and Lenovo back to the table or whos going to licence WebOS first. This no news but bad news faucett has to turn off. Potential abound. Now execute.
@cherryboom
joking wit you. but we'll see how good you think that iphone is once all the other mobile OSs leave em behind.
Hell, I love webOS. I'm ready for some good news from Palm. Rubinstein seems like a very smart guy, but when it comes right down to it, he's an engineer. Palm has done fine by me from an engineering standpoint. Where Palm lacks is marketing and positioning. Let's get someone in the right place at Palm to sell Palm, whether that be with better ads, better website or better behind the scenes negotiating with potential buyers. (For the record, Lenovo may have cash in hand, but they are also the only company that may actually have more boring and lackluster marketing than Palm. Great.)
Wow...this is turning into Activision...
Minus the lawsuits.
I like JRub i hope sticks around and breathes life into palm and they both blossom into AMAZING!! we need palm in the industry
We don't KNOW what happened or why she left ( speculations on"she should have been fired ","she wasn't doing her job very well " etc. aren't credible and are in fact just that : speculations, because we don't know how the hierarchy worked and still works in the company ) or even if she left voluntary. What is very apparent is that the whole structure is falling apart . Lenovo better hurry before all the expertise is already employed elsewhere.
@rik66 Lenovo better stay away from this festering boil. They should wait for Palm's fire sale instead.
Jon Rubinstein is with Palm, and he ain't leaving Palm soon. They are just cutting some excess fats at the VP levels. They could send some of their operations to India, given that they named that Karthik Srinivasan guy as their Managing Director for the Asia Pacific operations. All in the good purpose of stretching the dollars and to reduce the Operating Expenses. So I was kind of surprised to see some of the village idiots' discussions here as if Palm's doomsday is next week sending JR to oblivion by this weekend!! Drunks at TGIF can say anything I guess.
ahh leveno or what ever the hell is going to buy it now....my life... I really love webOS on my pre
Has anyone sent the obligatory, company-wide "START STEALING NOW" email?
Palms marketing was absolutely terrible. She probably quit before they fired her.
@engadget123 Could be,but we all know how some of these companies work ( Microsoft and Apple also have very dominant CEO's so that would make any marketing exec look stupid ) .That's what I meant : we don't know how the hierarchy works within Palm .
Could be the CEO is pretty much deciding everything - including who the marketing exec is allowed to talk to - plenty of companies have struggled in the past due to such a company-structure.It's all mere speculation.
@rik66
I don't think you really understand the hierarchy of upper management in general, as you keep getting the CEO confused with the Chairman of the Board.
For example, why Jobs has so much power within Apple, is because he's Chairman AND CEO of the company. Not only does he run the daily operations of the company (What the CEO does), but he also controls the Board of Directors (Such as residing over meetings, and being the face of the Board to the world whenever they're not meeting).
Rubinstein is only the CEO, not the Chairman. He COULD be telling the Marketing Executive what to say, but to say he has a death strangle per say on how they can talk to, is kind of a reach to imply.
Finally new winds on marketing in a new smartphone age. I really hope so.I will stay tuned for stunning Palm devices ads.:)
Folks, seriously...please stop it with the Star Wars references. If your girlfriend were to ask to sit with you to have a thoughtful discussion, would everything that comes of your mouth be Star Wars references?
@chiliu78 I guess he finds your lack of faith, disturbing.
Somewhere on the west coast, Jobs is laughing his ass off tonight......
My girlfriend's mother looks exactly like him. Hell with all this.
@iknowaeiou
I want to thank you for that comment.
It should be mentioned on "Posts from last night".
NO GO TEAM11!1!1!1
Alas, it'll soon be time to load up the Desert Eagle .50 and take poor old Palm out back...
What we have right now is a bunch of us sitting around watching this great train wreck that is Palm's swan song. It's a shame that a company started up by a group of ex-Apple employees is doing the big firework.
No, wait. No it isn't. Palm refused to adapt and advance and do new things until far too late in the game. And now we're supposed to feel sorry about it? What a load of rubbish.
The VCs are meantime in a turfwar trying to take over the board while the incumbents are spinning in circles. This turfwar usually results in both loosing.http://shopbattery.co.uk
Good news. Marketing folks at Palm should have been fired long ago. May be this is the woman who put out that weird looking woman add. VP of carier marketing obviously screwed up big time. The lady got fired
I would laugh if Palm had to close up shop before summers end.
Clearly the VP of carrier marketing was NOT getting the job done. We all live in the real world and if you don't get results...and the company does not have success...you're gone.
Ruby bought palm from nothing to something last january now yall dumbasses want him gone. He will WOW us again with new hardware just wait.
Oh, Palm, die already... It's getting excruciating to watch you slowly fade away...
@incognito you die already palm shall life forever. the smartphone market is huge and it has plenty of room for various contenders
Palm had it right til they dropped the stylus. The minute they redirected everything to clone an iPhone with capacitive multitouch instead, they started going downhill. Stick to what you know.
@Maroonfree iphone clone... it has nothing to do with the iphone. webos is a great operating system that allows you to really multitask with live applications running. not like apples idea of multitasking, which reminds me of windows mobile type of multitasking. iphone is a joke.
I love my pre plus.
I love webOS.
I love palm.
@Spaces
They do say love is blind
@webber So say we all.
Rubinstein is a tragedy.
@jizzmasterzero Well, I kind of doubt Sprint will get an iPhone, and honestly if you're savvy enough to be a regular reader/poster here, you have to be aware of the limits and vendor lock-in associated with the iPhone and iTMS platform anyhow.
When you also look at the rates charged for comparable service and plans between Sprint and T-Mobile (in particular) it's that much harder to justify continuing to remain with them. If I weren't under contract, I'd be gone rather quickly.
Just sayin', is all...
Can you guys use another pic of this guy next time?
She needed to go. If she was in charge of marketing she needed the boot. No biggie.