If Palm Falls, Will Anyone Care?

I was roused from my slumber by the news that Palm's smartphone sales haven't been doing so hot.

Business Insider: Palm Sold Only 408,000 Smartphones Last Quarter

Specifically, Palm's smartphone sellthrough was just 408,000 units last quarter, down 29% q/q and down 15% y/y. This is worse than expected -- remember, a year ago, the Pre wasn't even on the market yet. Mike Abramsky of RBC was expecting 650,000 units, for instance.

It's kind of apples to oranges (sorry), but in addition to the 7.5 million iPhones in a Quarter that the article references, consider how it's been estimated that Apple sold 120,000 iPads on the first day of pre-orders. That's without people even being able to go to a store and hold one in their hands.

The comments below the Business Insider story are well worth reading for their insight, not least of which is the observation that Palm's advertisements suck. I had to laugh at the radio spots I heard this past Christmas, with a teen voice saying "WOW, a Palm Pre! Thanks Mom!"

In what universe are you going to find a teen who covets a Palm above all other phones?

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Private Equity, others sniffing around the Palm tree

NYT: Palm Takeover Expected This Week: Report
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Palm Inc. (PALM.O) could be sold for at least $20 per share this week, and private equity firm Texas Pacific Group and at least three other bidders are interested, according to unnamed sources cited by technology news Web site Unstrung.com.
Texas Pacific declined to comment. A spokeswoman for Sunnyvale, California-based Palm, which makes the Treo smartphone, was not immediately available.
Sources have previously told Reuters that Palm hired Morgan Stanley to pursue a buyer.
Other bidders may include Nokia (NOK1V.HE) or Motorola Inc. (MOT.N), the site said. It also said there was speculation that private equity firm Silver Lake was interested in Palm.
``We are not commenting on rumors,'' said Nokia spokeswoman Arja Suominen.
A spokesman for Silver Lake was not immediately available for comment. Motorola was also not immediately available.
The site said that Morgan Stanley wanted to wrap up a deal by Thursday.
Palm shares were up nearly 5 percent at $19.02 in premarket trading after closing on Monday at $18.14 on Nasdaq.

So what makes the most sense, for Palm to be absorbed by a cellular company, or by a PE group that will tinker with it, and then sell it on to a cellular company?

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