Is Palm still an attractive acquisition target?

So, maybe they were waiting for the quarterly report and earnings call before prognosticating, but members of the tech journalism establishment now are--formally at least--predicting what many have been saying for months: its game over for Palm. The Pre launch on AT&amp;T--when, or if, that happens--wont matter. A European launch certainly wouldnt be a bad thing, but is irrelevant at this point. Even following Engadgets survival guide to a tee wouldnt be enough to keep Palm alive. Although the Monday-morning quarterbacking in the Engadget article was pretty spot-on, I enjoyed the authors regrettable resignation in the Ars article. Both are good reads even if the subject is a tad tired by now. We can debate how Palm ended up where it is now, but it seems that everyone at least agrees on where Palm is. While its acquisition sticker price probably is lower now than it was 6 months ago, the question is, who would buy Palm? There is a certain phenomenon or &quot;law of the universe&quot; where the more desperate you are, the more unattractive you are. Palms attractiveness definitely was higher 6 months ago: the WebOS was still seen as innovative, it still had a group of believers, and Palm had a second device (albeit a flawed one). Furthermore, it was thought that an existing, or perspective, smartphone player could almost instantly become relevant by acquiring Palm and the WebOS. But that was before Microsoft unveiled its Windows Phone 7 Series plans. That was before the Nexus One. Regardless of opinions on WP7 strategy, I dont think anyone still believes Microsoft needs to make an acquisition to be competitive. And while the WebOS may still be innovative, it lacks buzz, it lacks developer support and is now losing even its diehard fans. Fewer companies stand to benefit as much from a Palm acquisition now. And lets not forget that the buyer would have to deal with Palms debt, low employee morale, hardware support issues, etc. That said, who would be your pick? InformationWeek mentioned HP as a possibility given that HPs smartphone sales have declined and the company doesnt seem to have any real strategy around its smartphone business. If it really sees the market as strategic, an acquisition could put HP at the forefront. The same goes for Dell, who has a renewed interest in the cell phone market with its Android-based device. Owning a complete smartphone product would give it more control and perhaps more distinction vs. being one of several Android OEMs. And then theres Nokia, but it still seems committed to Symbian and Maemo. My dark horse pick would be Cisco. Smartphones could be considered as an extension to its telephony products and part of a strategy to move up the communications stack. Furthermore, a platform like WebOS could complement Ciscos collaboration product strategy through integration with WebEx, Telepresence and the recently-acquired Tandberg solutions. Many IT shops are loyal to the Cisco brand and would like the idea of a single, trusted vendor providing an end-to-end product portfolio for corporate voice and video communication and collaboration. So while others battle Apple in the consumer space, Cisco would be challenging RIMs corporate dominance and disrupting Apples encroachment into the enterprise. Trying to win over business users might seem like an odd strategy given the focus on the consumer. But, both RIM and Nextel started in the commercial space and then trickled down into the consumer space. The opposite is happening now because most average users are not power users. As long as they can check their email and access their calendar, the average user is more than willing to sacrifice power-user functionality in order to have the benefits of the iPhone or Android. But, the pendulum will swing the other way when a vendor releases a product that is an exponentially better business tool that professional users cant live without--much like the Blackberry was for so many years. And with its suite of enterprise productions, Cisco potentially could be that vendor. What do you think? Make your Palm predictions in the comments! <img alt="" height="0" width="0" border="0" style="display:none" src="http://segment-pixel.invitemedia.com/pixel?code=TechBiz&amp;partnerID=167&amp;key=segment" /> <img alt="" height="0" width="0" border="0" style="display:none" src="http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-8bUhLiluj0fAw.gif?labels=pub.29715.rss.TechBiz.9425,cat.TechBiz.rss" /> Microsoft - Apple - Nokia - Dell - Palm
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