Palm: We’re Desperate, Get Used to It
by John Paczkowski
Posted on March 9, 2009 at 9:33 AM PT
With no more than $220 million in cash on hand, Palm’s working capital position is…how can I put this delicately…abysmal. So news that the company is remarketing a bit of stock to keep itself afloat shouldn’t come as a surprise. This morning Palm (PALM) said it was exercising its right to remarket 18.5 million common shares originally acquired by Elevation Partners back in January. Under the terms of the arrangement, Elevation will recoup the $49 million it originally paid for the shares, and Palm will receive any net proceeds beyond that amount. Right now, Palm is trading at around $6.30. So the company could do quite well in the sale. And it certainly needs to, for obvious reasons. “These proceeds would be used to strengthen Palm’s working capital position and to further bolster the resources Palm is devoting to the launch of the Palm Pre and future product-development efforts,” Palm said in a statement.
Comments
the palm story is over…they blew an opportunity years ago to upgrade pilot users to a super cell phone
Posted by Sam Harrison at March 9th, 2009 at 11:48 amFormer Palm Fanboi here!:
I bought into three generations of this stuff hardly distinguishable one from the other and all priced as if it was based on nuclear fusion. I even have a keyboard and modem for the bloody things.
You wore us out Palm. I used you until I almost went blind (er, or something).
They missed so many opportunities to capture the market with low-cost devices it’s pathetic.
Finally they put out a $99 device after the party was over. Now they are playing “me-too” to the iPhone. Good luck with that!
I would sell off what is left to Casio, who will market the device in drug stores for $19.95 or to be given away with magazine and banking services promos.
Palm could also become a re-marketer for Android, where people actually did new work and created a commodity device. They have become as moribund as Microsoft, but without the bank account to keep themselves going.
It’s all over bar the mergers and acquisitions folk.
Posted by Mac Beach at March 9th, 2009 at 1:33 pmPalm, once the golden boy of the handheld market is now the 4th dog in a 3 dog race. Between Windows Mobile, Apple and Google’s Android it’s hard to see Palm making a comeback.
It’s especially hard to understand why Palm chose Sprint to exclusively bring the Pre to market. That doesn’t seem like a company posied for a 4th quarter comeback.
Palm always had some great ideas and I’d love nothing more for them to put Apple and Microsoft on notice with a killer product but sadly I think that’s like dreaming of the DOW breaking 1400 anytime soon.
Posted by Tony Clark at March 9th, 2009 at 3:23 pm