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[Henry]

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) is willing to pay $1.2 billion for the company.
The reason: The odds were very good that Palm would cease to exist, perhaps by the end of the year, maybe earlier.

HP's offer comes after Palm spent millions developing its Palm Pixi smart phone to compete with Apple's (AAPL) iPhone, Research In Motion's (RIMM) BlackBerry family of devices and phones that use Google's (GOOG) Android operating system.

The problem was that it couldn't get much acceptance of its product with the big wireless companies. It has been carried by AT&T (T) and Verizon Wireless and Sprint (S), but the phones have been also-rans against competitor devices.

Last month, Palm said it expected less than $150 million in revenue in its fiscal fourth quarter, shocking analysts who were expecting about $285 million. Today, it cut the forecast again -- to $90 million to $100 million. The quarter ends on May 31.

Assuming it wins Palm, Hewlett-Packard would gain control of Palm's WebOS operating system, which has won praise for its technical virtues even if sales have been weak. HP would add muscle behind the development of new devices built on the operating system.

More info at this link: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/In ... =1,1748541