Palm Acquires Handspring

[Steve]

In a landmark deal that's sure to change the face of the handheld industry, Palm has acquired Handspring. Yes, Jeff Hawkins, Donna Dubinsky and Ed Colligan will be returning to Palm after leaving nearly five years ago.

Read about it at http://www.brighthand.com/article/Pa...res_Handspring

[Mike Cane]

http://palminfocenter.com/print.asp?ID=4641

PalmInfocenter.com
Opinion: Mike Cane's 2003 Palm OS Predictions
Posted by: Ryan on Monday, December 30, 2002 10:52:04
AM

1) Palm SG Acquires Handspring
HandEra disappearing from the shelves is one thing. To
have the sequel company of Palm Computing founder Jeff
Hawkins go under is just catastrophic PR. The merger
will be papered over with Hawkins wanting to retire to
do brain research and the Big Lie that Palm SG will
gain knowledge and experience from Handspring's
Communicator efforts. Palm SG will continue to use the
Handspring name as a brand for wireless devices. (And,
no, they will not bring back the Springboard -- get
over it!) The acquisition will be a stock swap with no
cash changing hands.

[Steve]

Good call, Mike! Ed Hardy and I also predicted that Handspring would be acquired this year (see http://www.brighthand.com/article/Predictions_for_2003). Ed hit it right on the nose, saying that Palm would acquire Handspring.

[Mike Cane]

He must have read it somewhere. *cough*

January 1st, 2003 vs December 30th, 2002? *ahem*

Anyway, for 2004: Sony Acquires PalmSpring.

There. You've read it at Brighthand first!

[Mike Cane]

http://pressroom.palm.com/InvestorRe...&storyid=88696

[Ed Hardy]

I'm glad we both were right but we were far from first. People have been predicting that these two companes would merge for a long, long time. The earliest I found was from July 2002.

[Mike Cane]

Was it a prediction or was it a "This would be a good idea" type article? Those don't count. Any dork can say that. And they usually do...

[Ed Hardy]

That was when rumors first began to circulate the the two companies were in negotions to merge. The same rumor popped up again in November and was reported by both the Wall Street Journal and CNN Money. I wonder when talks started. Was it way back last summer or in the fall?

I also wonder what this will do to Palm's stock price. It shot up in November on those rumors.

[Mike Cane]

http://money.cnn.com/2003/06/04/news/companies/palm/

-- Palm's stock is now something I wish I had bought when it was sub-dollar. Look at it now!

HS, OTOH, is poor...

Yeah, I wonder when they started talking ...

... and has Sony started talks to buy the whole lot?

Borrowed bytes from Palminfocenter:

Palm Handspring conference call
hoodoo @ 6/4/2003 9:37:33 AM

10:30 EST/ 7:30 PST this morning!

http://ir.palm.com/ireye/ir_site.zht...item_id=751953

[EdH]

Originally posted by Mike Cane -- Palm's stock is now something I wish I had bought when it was sub-dollar. Look at it now!

The dollar price was pre-reversesplit. If you adjusted the current ~$13 price for the split, it would be 65 cents. You have to divide todays price by 20 to compare it to the old price.