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What some may say is the first reorganization caused by Apple’s soon-to-released iPhone. The longtime struggling Palm, reached a deal yesterday to sell a quarter of the company to Elevation Partners, a private equity firm led by Apple’s former Chief Financial Officer, Fred Anderson, and Roger McNamee, for about $325 million as part of a plan to reorganize the company.
The plan also brings Apple alumni, Jon Rubinstein, a former executive who ran its iPod division, to join Palm as its executive chairman. Elevation Partners’ Fred Anderson, the formerly from Apple and director of eBay and Move Inc. will join Palm’s board along with Roger McNamee. U2 frontman Bono is also a partner of Elevation Partners. Do we see “red” Palm devices in our future?
Palm, best known for the Treo line of phones, said two board members — former CEO Eric Benhamou and D. Scott Mercer — will resign.
Anderson was Apple’s executive vice president and CFO from 1996 to 2004. Recently Anderson accused Steve Jobs of telling him to backdate stock options granted to Jobs by Apple; the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reached a settlement with Anderson and charged for Apple general counsel Nancy Heinen. Anderson paid $3.5 million in fines without admitting wrongdoing.
Palm has had an uphill battle over the past several years as the company has tried to remold itself into a manufacturer of “smartphones” against challengers from Research In Motion’s BlackBerry, Windows Mobile phones, and, now will face some stiff competition from Apple iPhone being launched on June 29.
Palm introduced the $499 Foleo, last week to mixed reactions from tech sites. Foleo is a lightweight laptop-type device with a 10 inch screen that works in conjunction with the Palm Treo, offering a full-sized keyboard, built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told German site ‘Wirtschafts Woche’ that the Zune is losing the company money, so it would be crazy to take it to new markets in its current state. Microsoft is essentially shelving the Zune for now it seems and needs to play catch up with Apple again. So Palm is not alone.
Palm has long looked as if it was out of ideas and lacked any real direction. Does this spell the end to Palm or a new beginning? What do you think?
