Apple Reportedly Placed Bid to Buy Palm, Was Outbid by HP

[MacRumors]

Silicon Alley Insider reports that it has spoken with a source close to the negotiations that ultimately resulted in HP acquiring Palm earlier this year. According to the source, Apple was very interested in acquiring Palm, primarily for its intellectual property, but was outbid by HP.

Even more interestingly, the source claims that Apple was interested in keeping Palm's business intact, possibly in order to challenge Research in Motion in the market of consumers focused on smartphones carrying hardware keyboards.

Apple was mostly interested in Palm's huge library of intellectual property and patents. And unlike some other bidders, Apple even seemed committed to funding Palm's operations, perhaps to challenge RIM's dominance in the keyboarded segment of the smartphone industry, our source says. (There's a bunch of problems with this idea, such as the idea of Apple supporting two rival app platforms, but that's what this person says.) Ultimately, Apple didn't bid high enough, while HP offered an amount the board couldn't say no to. (Recall that Steve Jobs tried to buy Palm years ago in its first life, too, when it was owned by 3Com.)

The source also shared a couple of other interesting pieces of information, including claims that Google expressed initial interest in Palm, primarily because it thought Apple might be interested, but backed off because it didn't know Apple was actually putting forth a bid. Additionally, Research in Motion initially had the highest bid for Palm and was close to sealing the deal but lost out when HP increased its bid.

Palm, which featured a number of former Apple executives and engineers on its team, faced off against Apple on a number of fronts, with Apple even resorting to veiled threats against the company over multitouch functionality and other features in Palm's webOS. The companies also sparred over iTunes syncing, with each side issuing multiple software updates to alternately enable and disable the Palm Pre's ability to directly tap into users' iTunes libraries to load media content.

Article Link: Apple Reportedly Placed Bid to Buy Palm, Was Outbid by HP

 

[japanime]

Would have been an interesting acquisition. It does make one wonder, though, whether Apple really is ultimately to move away from "traditional" computers (desktops and larger laptops) and become strictly a mobile-computing company.

 

[rmatthewware]

I need a "Meh" option for rating. I mean, a story that may or may not be true about how Apple didn't buy a company isn't very intereting.

 

[Irrational]

Funny that Google only wanted Palm if Apple wanted it.

 

[rwilliams]

Apple damn sure could have benefitted from WebOS's notification system.

 

[3583582]

It's a good thing IMO that none of the companies already in the phone business got Palm. I still doubt that HP won't screw up..but I'd be happy if they didn't.

 

[maturola]

Funny that Google only wanted Palm if Apple wanted it.

I think the reason Apple wanted Palm was to keep away from Googles or even HTC hands

 

[allmIne]

Apple damn sure could have benefitted from WebOS's notification system.

Ain't that the truth, man.

 

[rmatthewware]

I think the reason Apple wanted Palm was to keep away from Googles or even HTC hands

Because Google or Apple needed a crappy phone to replace their own phones that are doing just fine.

The Palm phone was a joke from the start. "Hey, let's make a phone that requires you to hack into iTunes to sync anything. Brilliant!"

 

[MacModMachine]

they did not even consider my bid......

but hey, $30 can go along ways these days....cant it ?

 

[ravenvii]

Apple damn sure could have benefitted from WebOS's notification system.

X2! But at least the guy who made it went back to Apple after HP's acquisition of Palm.

 

[maturola]

Because Google or Apple needed a crappy phone to replace their own phones that are doing just fine.

The Palm phone was a joke from the start. "Hey, let's make a phone that requires you to hack into iTunes to sync anything. Brilliant!"

It's not about the Phones.... It about Intelectual property and Engineers (most of them actually apple's former Engineers)

 

[macus3r]

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[elppa]

Funny that Google only wanted Palm if Apple wanted it.

This was the funniest part. It says everything about Google to me. They follow.

 

[Lord Vader]

Doesn't look like Apple wanted Palm badly, because Apple pockets are deeper than HP's.

 

[macus3r]

HP buying Palm spoiled Palm I think... unless HP comes out with its dick swinging Palm tech hard in the next 6-12 months... let's see what happens.

game's on.

 

[vincenz]

I think they got what they wanted anyway with the Palm guy who was behind notifications for webOS.

 

[millar876]

did palm not kinda buy/pinch a load af apple tech when apple sold off all the newton stuff, like grafiti handwrighting recognition and a couple of other bits and bobs?

 

[na1577]

I'm glad this didn't go through. WebOS has a chance to thrive under HP, an opportunity it wouldn't have had if Apple had acquired Palm.

 

[lllll]

Apple never wanted Palm in the first place. They only went to bid so that Apple rival would waste money on a dying company thus unable to compete with Apple in the long run because they wasted billion of dollar buying Palm.

 

[macus3r]

Apple never wanted Palm in the first place. They only went to bid so that Apple rival would waste money on a dying company thus unable to compete with Apple in the long run because they wasted billion of dollar buying Palm.

Good point. This would have been a shrewd move... but what if palm accepted? WHAT IF?

 

[locust76]

Had Apple bought Palm, they might have also acquired a clue or two about proper antenna design.

 

[kiljoy616]

Funny that Google only wanted Palm if Apple wanted it.

More scary is if Research in Motion had gotten a hold of all those patents, what a treasure trove of patent trolling that would have been.

 

[kiljoy616]

I think the reason Apple wanted Palm was to keep away from Googles or even HTC hands

Research in Motion is way more problematic for apple, they make nothing, just do patent trolling. At least Google and HTC make something, which means there can be mutual respect for patents attacks, but imagine a very very small company that makes nothing, but sues non stop.

 

[deconstruct60]

According to the source, Apple was very interested in acquiring Palm, primarily for its intellectual property,
....
pieces of information, including claims that Google expressed initial interest in Palm, primarily because it thought Apple might be interested, but backed off because it didn't know Apple was actually putting forth a bid.

Both Apple and Google could been making a play to keep the price for Palm going too low. If RIM could have bought Palm for a very cheap price then they'd both have more issues. Likewise if Apple gets Palm's IP for discount prices ... that doesn't do Google any good. A bit short sighted of Google not to include RIM in that mix but probably had better rumblings about Apple sniffing around. However, RIM doesn't have the "stacks of gold" that Apple has so harder to get them worked up into a bidding war. In the end, RIM did blink.

If HP , RIM , and Google had balked and either didn't or put in super low bids Apple could have walked off with stack of IP and talent for relatively little money. I doubt it was one of those two platforms move alluded to in the quote. There are lots of players giving fake tells at the table in one of these.


P.S. If the A,B,C, D company descriptions match up ... RIM is blew it big time. They had the whole thing wrapped up and then went Scrooge McDuck and got nothing. It also points to that it was more to fact Google was only interested in patents perhaps more so than just mimicking Apple. Google didn't want to go full time into end product handset business . There is no big upside for them to do that and even less so with the number of units Palm was shipping.