Unstrung.com is reporting that Palm buyout could be finalized as early as Thursday this week and that the going price will be somewhere around $20 per share. Rumors about Palm being sold have been floating around for some time now and at one point, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion was thought to be one of the bidders, although that no longer appears to be the case.
There are up to four buyers on the hook in all — two private equity firms and two rival gadget vendors. Texas Pacific Group is said to be one of the interested private equity firms and it is speculated — but not certain — that Silver Lake Partners is the other.
Nokia Corp is the key bidder in the vendor world. The number one handset vendor is said to be considering a bid at $19 to $20 a share. What may surprise some, however, is the talk that Motorola Inc. has been reconsidering its position and may try to block Nokia with a bid.
It is amazing that just a few years ago Palm was king of the PDA world and no matter what handheld you had, people commonly referred to it as a Palm Pilot. It’s almost like how today any smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard is referred to as a BlackBerry, but, I digress.
[…] heard a couple of days ago that Palm might be ready to sell. It was believed, however that Nokia, not Motorola had the inside […]