Hewlett-Packard plans to buy struggling phone maker Palm for $1.2 billion.
The announcement, which came just after the U.S. stock market closed on Wednesday, follows rumors this week of a number of suitors, including Lenovo and HTC, vying to buy the iconic brand.
Palm last year released a new operating system, WebOS, that now runs on two phone models. But amid tough competition from Apple's iPhone and Google's Android phones, Palm struggled to sell the phones. During its last earnings call, Palm said it had a large inventory of phones that hadn't yet been sold and that future earnings would be lower than expected.
The acquisition should provide a much-needed infusion of cash to maintain development of Palm's technologies. "The focus now goes from financials to what the devices can actually do," said Chris Hazelton, an analyst at the 451 Group.
More: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9176097/
The announcement, which came just after the U.S. stock market closed on Wednesday, follows rumors this week of a number of suitors, including Lenovo and HTC, vying to buy the iconic brand.
Palm last year released a new operating system, WebOS, that now runs on two phone models. But amid tough competition from Apple's iPhone and Google's Android phones, Palm struggled to sell the phones. During its last earnings call, Palm said it had a large inventory of phones that hadn't yet been sold and that future earnings would be lower than expected.
The acquisition should provide a much-needed infusion of cash to maintain development of Palm's technologies. "The focus now goes from financials to what the devices can actually do," said Chris Hazelton, an analyst at the 451 Group.
More: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9176097/