Rumors that smartphone and PDA maker Palm might be up for sale have been swirling for months—and, unfortunately, were not eased by the company’s high-profile but poorly-received announcement of its Palm Foleo palmtop device. Now the company has announced a major “strategic recapitalization” which will see Palm taking in $325 million from equity firm Elevation Partners in exchange for 25 percent in the company. Furthermore, palm will be adding two former Apple executives to its company board—Jon Rubinstein, former head of Apple’s iPod division, and Fred Anderson, formerly Apple’s long-time CFO—along with Elevation’s Roger McNamee.
Tag Archive: Eric Benhamou
PalmSource spin-off approved
The transactions are expected to close later today, and two new leadership companies are expected to emerge and begin trading tomorrow on the Nasdaq stock market.
At Palm’s Annual Stockholders Meeting today, stockholders approved the spin-off of PalmSource, Inc., provider of the world’s leading operating system platform for mobile computing and communications, from Palm, Inc. Palm will distribute all the shares of PalmSource it owns (approximately 86 percent of the total) to Palm stockholders of record as of the close of business today. Those Palm stockholders will receive approximately 0.31 shares of PalmSource common stock for each share of Palm common stock they own. PalmSource common stock will trade on the Nasdaq stock market under the ticker symbol PSRC, starting tomorrow.
Palm aquires Handspring for $169 Million
The Palm board also gave final approval for the spin-off of PalmSource, Inc.
“These two bold moves will serve as a powerful catalyst to transform the landscape of the handheld industry. The strategic choice of merging Handspring and the Palm Solutions Group of Palm will create the broadest portfolio and the most-experienced leadership team in the industry, fully capable of delivering value to customers, partners and shareholders,” said Eric Benhamou, Palm, Inc. chairman and chief executive officer, and chairman of PalmSource. “And the spin-off of PalmSource will help grow the Palm Economy, attract additional licensees and unlock shareholder value.”
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