Palm Investors: All Hail Jon Rubinstein
by John Paczkowski
Posted on June 11, 2009 at 11:10 AM PT
Jon Rubinstein’s appointment as Palm CEO was well received by investors. Clearly, the Pre father’s background at Apple (AAPL) and his recent efforts to rebuild Palm (PALM) around a new and competitive operating system–the OS the company should have had two years ago–have convinced Wall Street that he’s the guy to bring back the company’s long-lost edge.
Sounding off in a barrage of research notes today, analysts suggested Palm investors view the transition in leadership as a positive. “The timing was certainly awkward, coming just four days after the launch of the Pre,” Thomas Weisel Partners analyst Matthew Sheerin said in a note to investors. “Our take is that Rubinstein was being groomed for the last two years to run the company, and is ready for the next challenge, having put together a solid engineering team.”
James Faucette of Pacific Crest agreed. “Our turnaround thesis on Palm has always been rooted in the development team that Palm had recently put together, particularly the addition of Jon Rubinstein as head of development,” he said. “Today’s announcement effectively ensures that one of Silicon Valley’s best talents not only remains with Palm, but is fully engaged with the company’s future.”
And Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry said the streamlining of senior management roles at Palm was an absolute necessity. “I think this is the right move, a smart move,” he told the Mercury News. “[Rubinstein’s] involvement in the company has to be more mainstream. He has to be responsible for the success, and accountable for the failure, if there is any.”
Palm shares were up nearly eight percent, to $12.94 at the time of this writing. That’s up more than 500 percent since last December.
