{"id":522474,"date":"2010-04-09T13:02:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-09T17:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"e2249889-c78b-43e3-9643-b1d7d4aa587b:421185"},"modified":"2010-04-09T13:02:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-09T17:02:00","slug":"why-palm-could-be-a-takeover-target","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/522474","title":{"rendered":"Why Palm could be a takeover target"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/network.nationalpost.com\/NP\/blogs\/tradingdesk\/PalmTakeover.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/network.nationalpost.com\/NP\/blogs\/tradingdesk\/PalmTakeover.jpg\" align=\"middle\" border=\"0\" hspace=\"5\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>You might wonder why anyone would want to buy <a href=\"http:\/\/www.financialpost.com\/markets\/company\/index.html?symbol=PALM&amp;id=8155357\" >Palm Inc.<\/a> The smartphone maker has no shortage of challenges, including intensifying competition, disappointing sales for its Pre and Pixi devices, and a history of missteps by management. With roughly 12 months of cash on hand and an accelerating burn rate, some analysts see little or no value in the company\u2019s common equity.<\/p>\n<p>But that hasn\u2019t stopped investors from piling into the stock after yet another takeover rumour emerged out of Taiwan on Friday suggesting that HTC Corp. is in talks to buy Palm.<\/p>\n<p>Speculation that Lenovo Group Ltd. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fool.com\/investing\/general\/2010\/04\/08\/is-lenovo-palms-white-knight.aspx\" >could be a bidder<\/a> drove the stick higher earlier in the week. This might make more sense since the PC maker has a very small presence in the mobile market, however, it may not have the cash to acquire Palm.<\/p>\n<p>Given HTC\u2019s work with Google Inc.\u2019s Android phones, it probably doesn\u2019t have much use for Palm\u2019s devices or operating system. However, there is some logic to the deal, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/cgi-bin\/article.cgi?f=\/g\/a\/2010\/04\/09\/businessinsider-htc-rumored-to-be-interested-in-palm-2010-4.DTL\" >according to Jay Yarow<\/a> of the San Francisco Chronicle.<\/p>\n<p>For one, Palm has a fat portfolio of patents. This is important because HTC is being sued by Apple Inc. for patent infringement. If HTC owned all of Palm\u2019s patents, it could counter-sue Apple.<\/p>\n<p>Palm is also a better-known brand, something HTC could use in the U.S. market. \u201cWhile Palm\u2019s status is slightly down, it\u2019s still better than HTC,\u201d Mr. Yarow said.<\/p>\n<p>He also pointed out that Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein is still considered \u201ca stud.\u201d So too are a lot of other people at Palm, providing HTC with lots of brains and talent.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, Palm is cheap. It\u2019s market cap is below US$900-million. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:jratner@nationalpost.com\">Jonathan Ratner<\/a> <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/network.nationalpost.com\/NP\/aggbug.aspx?PostID=421185\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You might wonder why anyone would want to buy Palm Inc. The smartphone maker has no shortage of challenges, including intensifying competition, disappointing sales for its Pre and Pixi devices, and a history of missteps by management. With roughly 12 months of cash on hand and an accelerating burn rate, some analysts see little or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4059,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-522474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4059"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522474\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}