(28-Apr-10) After struggling in recent years to reclaim the success it once had in pioneering the personal digital assistant market, smart phone vendor Palm (Nasdaq: PALM) has agreed to be acquired by Hewlett Packard Co. (Nasdaq: HPQ) in a deal worth US$1.2 billion.
The acquisition, which is still pending shareholder approval and is expected to close in HP's fiscal third quarter, gives HP popular Palm products such as the Pre and Pixi, as well as Palm's critically acclaimed new mobile operating system, webOS. HP sees the acquisition giving it an immediate foothold in the emerging smart phone market, and sees webOS as the foundation that will allow it to build a common connected mobile experience across devices, from smart phones to netbooks and even it's upcoming slate offering.
HP Canada executives were unavailable to discuss the acquisition. But in a conference call with press and analysts, Todd Bradley, executive vice-president of HP's personal systems group and himself a former Palm CEO, said Palm's world class technology coupled with HP's financial strength, product portfolio breadth and global scale will allow it to deliver a compelling mobile user experience across devices.
