The race to buyPalmearlier this year was degenerate and hot , with the companionship ’s bankers contacting 16 companies about the deal , including five serious possible suitor .
HPwon the bake - off , acquiring Palm for $ 1.2 billionin belated April .
But other company involve in the talk include Silicon Valley ’s increasingly free-enterprise rival , AppleandGoogle , as well as BlackBerry makerResearch In Motion , we have memorise from a source conversant with the negotiations .
agree to our discussion with this person :
• Apple was mostly concerned in Palm ’s immense depository library of intellectual property and patents ( 450 + patent on single file , another 400 + applications on file ) . And unlike some other bidders , Apple even seemed committed to fund Palm ’s cognitive operation , perhaps to gainsay RIM ’s authorization in the keyboarded section of the smartphone diligence , our informant says . ( There ’s a bunch of problems with this idea , such as the mind of Apple supporting two rival app political platform , but that ’s what this person says . ) Ultimately , Apple did n’t bid high enough , while HP offered an amount the board could n’t say no to . ( call back that Steve Jobs tried to grease one’s palms Palm years ago in its first animation , too , when it was own by 3Com . )
• RIM basically had the deal in its hand and “ had to work incredibly hard to shoot a line it , ” our source come back . RIM initially came in in high spirits than HP , but HP upped its bid , our reference says .
• Google , likely concerned in Palm ’s intellectual property , purportedly only wanted it because Google thought Apple might want it . But Google purportedly did n’t know Apple was actually bidding for Palm , so it did n’t continue .
• Nokia , bizarrely , was n’t anywhere near the deal . That may prove to be a stupid move , which we ’ll expand on later .
How does this compare with what is publically screw about Palm ’s deal cognitive process ?
In May , Palmfiled a long amalgamation proxy with the SEC , detailing how it decided to sell itself — including the part where it was in liaison with 16 potential buyers — and how HP and four other anonymous companies pursued it . ( “ Company A , ” “ society B , ” etc . )
In sum-up :
• “ Company A ” offered $ 600 million in cash and did n’t evoke its bid . We assume this is Apple , making its lowball hard cash bid but not getting into a bidding war .
• “ Company B ” proposed to acquire Palm in a parentage - for - livestock dealing , but also said that its “ advise transaction would take at least several calendar month longer to conclude than is customary . ” We assume this is Lenovo , the Chinese microcomputer Lord that wasreportedly the “ leading candidate”for Palm in mid - April .
• “ Company C ” first wanted to get patent rightfield from Palm , then later render to buy Palm as a whole . It primitively offered $ 6 - 7 per part , but after more industriousness , lowered its bid to $ 5.50 per part . We bear this is RIM .
• “ Company D ” get hold of Palm to discuss an intellectual property transaction but did not make a proposal to develop Palm . Discussions continued intermittently and fizzled out . We take up this is Google .
HP thenended up acquiring Palm for $ 5.70 per contribution , and is now in theprocess of determine Palm ’s WebOS platform into its own operating system , for pad , mobile devices , and printers .
acquisitionsAppleBlackBerryLenovo
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