Palm Sells 25% Stake to Private Firm

Less than a week after releasing the Foleo Treo companion device, Palm announced that it has sold 25% of the company to a private equity firm, Elevation Partners. Elevation paid $325 million for its quarter share of Palm, which is reorganizing itself in an attempt to strengthen the business. As part of the restructure, Palm is bringing in Jon Rubinstein as executive chairman to help manage the company. Rubinstein formerly ran Apple's iPod division. Also as part of the deal, Fred Anderson, Apple's former CFO, and Roger McNamee, a co-founder of Silver Lake Partners, will join the board. Palm will pay a $940 million dividend to shareholders, which breaks down to $9 per share. U2's Bono is one of the founders and investors of Elevation Partners.

full report...

Treo 755p review

Palm OS users are loyal, possibly more loyal than Apple users. However, unlike Apple, it is not a growing platform. More people are not adopting the Palm OS every day like they are Windows Mobile, or Symbian or the Blackberry. The Treo 755p doesn't add any new features to attract new users to the Palm OS, nor does it give current users much of a reason to upgrade. However, the 755p it is a solid performer that addresses nearly every complaint we've heard from current Palm users.

The Treo 755p and 750w share the exact same body. The only thing that is different about it are the navigation buttons that surround the D-pad. Because they are the same shape and even color, they will be difficult to tell apart. The 700w and 700p were equally similar.

full report...

Palm Announces New Linux Based Mobile Platform

Today at Palm Inc's Analyst Day, Palm CEO Ed Colligan officially announced that Palm will deliver a new Linux and open source based mobile computing platform combined with Palm OS Garnet technology on new products later this year. The new platform was just announced at the Palm Analyst meeting and details are light at this point and still coming in. Read on for some slides and more information from the presentation.

The platform is described as a "new foundation for Palm." It will combine aspects of Palm OS Garnet and a Linux core. Palm plans to "evolve" the Palm Developer community to the new platform.

Colligan highlighted and stressed a few points about the new platform. He continually stressed the importance of the user experience citing the ability to have an instant on, highly portable device with great battery life. Other highlights included greater hardware flexibility and the ability to handle simultaneous voice and data, two key ares which have hampered the traditional Palm OS in recent years.

Another key aspect would be the device's web browsing experience. Colligan said Palm is focusing highly on connected web applications and web services built around mobile devices. He cited the ability to easily backup and restore over the web, delivering software and device updates over the internet and wireless software distribution. The recent Opera brower licensing agreement is likely tied to this new platform.

full report...

Palm Buyout Could Close This Week

Palm, maker of the Treo smartphones, is expected to sell itself off this week, possibly as early as Thursday. The top bidders include two private equity firms, Texas Pacific Group and Silver Lake Partners, and two manufacturers, Nokia and Motorola. Palm is working with banking firm Morgan Stanley to close the deal, and is said to prefer selling to a private equity buyer. Nokia is considering bids in the $19 to $20 range, which is close to the $20 per share minimum that Palm is seeking. Motorola may enter the bidding process in an attempt to block Nokia from successfully acquiring the smartphone maker and thereby gaining some much-needed leverage in the U.S. market.

full report...