Hewlett-Packard landed Palm by raising its bid following interest from other suitors after intellectual property and a potential licensing arrangement for the WebOS.
The proxy statement, which sparked a good bit of discussion, provides an interesting read on how HP landed Palm. Simply put, HP almost fell short of acquiring Palm. Palm outlines the process to sell itself and the role of “Company C,” an unnamed outfit that was in the running until the HP deal was actually announced.
Palm covers a lot of known ground such as:
* The company was in a tailspin after a Verizon Wireless partnership failed to deliver sales;
* Liquidity was about to become an issue;
* And Palm didn’t have the scale of rivals to really compete.
Once Palm’s fate was largely sealed, the company went about auctioning itself off. Palm said it received interest from 16 companies including HP. Six including HP entered nondisclosure agreements.
