HP Buying Palm for $1.2 Billion

Well, just about a month back, I analyzed what went wrong at Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) and said that the best fit for Palm as an acquirer would be HP (NYSE:HPQ).

Well, HP IS acquiring Palm for $1.2 billion in cash including debt. HP will pay $5.70 per Palm share, a 23% premium to Wednesday’s closing price of $4.63. Shares in Palm have fallen 52% over the past 12 months.

Ironically, HP just acquired 3Com, the former owner of Palm. Palm was spun out of 3Com, taken public, then lost its leadership position in the PDA business that it successfully pioneered, having missed the smartphone opportunity initially.

Under HP, as I said recently, Palm will have an opportunity to build an enterprise applications strategy, utilizing HP’s strong enterprise channel.

We will watch closely!