HP Buys Palm. Ok Now The Mobile Space Just Got A Little More Interesting

HP has just announced that it's acquiring Palm to the tune of $1.2 billion, which works out to $5.70 per share of Palm common stock. The deal is planned to close by July 31, which marks the end of HP's third fiscal quarter of the year.

Wow.  Honestly, the rumors of Palm's demise over the last few weeks has been floating around the Internet.  When I heard that Lenovo was considering making a purchase for the once beloved inventor of the "Palm Pilot", I kind of shrugged for a second about the possibilities and moved on with what I was doing.

What Does $1.2 Billion Buy You ?

When I heard that HP just bought Palm for $1.2 billion ?  Now that my friends is a potential game changer.  You see up until this deal just went down, the mobile space was clearly about the leader Apple (iPhone, iPad)  and the rising star Google (Android).

Sure in the mobile world there is also Windows 7 on the outside looking in, Blackberry trying to break out of it's corporate shell and something called SYMBIAN.  Oh yeah , I almost forgot there is this little company called PALM. 

Yes, PALM.  The company formerly split into Handspring back into Palm who found a way to take a terrific OS, pretty decent device (PALM PRE) and run it into the ground with a marketing campaign so bizarre and inept you have to wonder if they were seriously just trying to fail from the start.

How could a company who revolutionized the PDA and stylus carrying geeks everywhere fall so far and so deep into irrelevance ?

In comes HP, the 2nd largest computer company in the world. Up until now HP had been slinging Windows Mobile / CE blah for the past decade on some respectable hardware on PDAs but never really jumped headfirst into the mobile game.

The problem for HP and for every other major technology player today is that the mobile evolution is not going to stop or slow down for anyone.  Dell has already jumped on the Android bandwagon.  How could HP afford to just sit back and watch ?  Would they just be another hardware vendor pumping out new designs for phones annually living under the Android or Windows 7 ecosystem ?  (Hey remember once upon a Fiorina time when Apple had HP branded products ?)

Swinging For The Fences

No HP swung for the fences with this one.  They are not just resolute with just sitting back away from the limelight anymore.  There is too much money to be made and everyone is tired of watching Apple get fat while everyone else is picking up the crumbs.

Why is this such a big play ?  HP with the sum of $1.2 billion gets an independent , technically savvy OS they can get behind.  With HP's deep pockets and hardware expertise, they can really leverage the power behind Palm's WEB OS and launch HP into a true player in the mobile world.

While Apple and Google are not exactly losing any sleep, that little sticker on your car that reads "objects in the mirror may seem larger than they may appear" could not be any more misleading now.

Things just got a little more interesting for sure.

And yes, in case you were wondering Palm WEBOS supports FLASH.