mobileu.co.uk

Palm looking for buyer

According to Bloomberg, the makers of the Palm Pre are actively looking for a buyer and have hired Goldman Sachs and Qatalyst Partners to seek offers immediately.

Palm predicted a poor outlook when it reported its last quarterly results and Jon Rubenstein, the company's CEO, hinted at that point that he would be open to offers for acquisition.

Palm had hoped the launch of the Pre would reinvigorate the company. However, while the handsets have received critical praise, sales of the devices have remained disappointing, and the value of the company has dipped. Palm has posted eleven quarterly losses in a row and industry analysts are commenting that Palm will need a buyer in order to survive.

Frank He, an analyst with BOC International Holdings, told Bloomberg: "Palm still has quite a good brand in the US market and some strong technology." He added: "You can do something with it. The share have gone down a lot and the company may become attractive to anyone looking for a turnaround play."

Top of the list of candidates for an acquisition are said to be HTC, followed by Asian vendors, Lenovo and ZTE.