US stocks review: People who didn't become palm grooms

MarketWatch San Francisco, May 21, wrote in a decision to choose Verizon Wireless (VZ) as its own network partner, less than one months after Palm Inc.　　(PALM) can smell the smell clearly.　　Another two months later, the company was in a state of HPQ, grateful for the embrace of HP, the Savior. The documents that have just been submitted to the authorities tell people how palm chicken the general search for a savior.　　The story starts with a board meeting on February 17, at which time it was only one weeks before the company disclosed its revenue shortfall-an expectation that, as they had expected, spooked investors and led to a strong crackdown on stock prices. The numbers that the company's officials and the directors are evaluating are really hard to be optimistic about, and even worse, the bad results were obtained after their pre and Pixi smartphones were launched by Verizon, and the new product obviously didn't work as expected.　　As a result, Palm's total revenue in the quarter ended February slid 109 million dollars from its previously estimated $407 million trillion.　　At the same time, they predicted the likely performance of the fiscal quarter ended May 28, when the conclusion was that it would be worse, with revenue expected to be $226 million trillion, and the company's previous target of 605 million dollars. The detailed documents submitted by the SEC show that Palm's board and management team made a decision at a meeting in February to take all possible options into account, such as alternative financing, strategic cooperation, intellectual property licensing ...　　Of course, there is the sale of the company itself.　　In other words, from late February to early March, when market watchers and the media were rushes about Palm's potential takeover targets, the smartphone developer was secretly looking for a lifeboat. "They are really impatient.　　Chris Hazelton, an analyst at 451 Group, a technology research firm, added that the deal was Hazelton so quickly that the analysts were surprised. Perhaps one of the other things is just as surprising, that is, there are still so many companies that are interested in a company that is losing money, even though everyone can see that they are already having a huge problem selling their products.　　In a word, Palm's consulting firm Goldman Sachs and Qatalyst are likely to take credit for their success in proving their ability to secure a fat deal for a disadvantaged company.　　After Palm's crucial board meeting, the company's advisers have successfully summoned six companies and signed an undisclosed agreement with Palm, demonstrating their interest in the deal.　　One of the six companies is Hewlett-Packard. ThisThe documents do not disclose the names of other companies. So Silicon Valley began to pop a new game, guessing who the other five potential buyers were.　　Just so far, all the arguments can only be inferred and hypothetical. Hewlett-Packard was the first buyer to offer a bid for the entire company, and on April 13, in a letter, they suggested buying palm in cash at a price of $4.75 per share. Two days later, April 15, a buyer who was later called a company, apparently the miser in the game, offered a 600 million dollar cash offer.　　The bidder never returned to the negotiating table. Who is the company A? It is clear that this is a relatively well-off company, and it is a company that may have been thinking about entering the smartphone business through a takeover deal. Some observers believe that a company is more likely to be a Cisco system (CSCO). The tech giant apparently has plenty of money, but at least as far as it is known, they never seem to have made plans to move into mobile devices.　　More importantly, it is hard to imagine Cisco's largesse to try to get Palm's webOS mobile operating system, which is a very important potential market entry point. Dell is also being questioned by some people. The computer maker's money is less well-off than Cisco's, but they do have a clear indication of their intentions to enter the smartphone market.　　As Dell plans to launch its Android-based products later this year, it's a good choice to have its own system platform, so webOS is naturally attractive to them. Another player, later known as Company B, proposed a swap offer on April 15, but did not specify the price of the transaction. They were said to have said at the time that the deal was expected to take a few months longer than the normal cycle, which is clearly unacceptable for palm, which could be patronized by death at any time. Could this company be Motorola (MOT)?　　They do have some cash, but at the same time they are planning an ambitious split, at which point a takeover deal will naturally complicate things, and it is logical to ask for an extension. Another player, known as D, had contacted Palm on March 18 in the hope of an intellectual property deal. Although the two sides have contact, but things have never progressed to the substantive stage.　　Companies that may be playing this role say a lot, such as the possibility of many mobile phone companies, including Nokia (NOK), Samsung and LG. In contrast, the most serious bidders in the front and back roles should also be said to be C, which April 18 offered to buy palm in cash, priced at 6 to 7 dollars per share, and they want to sign within 14 days. C Company apparently later was intoFurther assessment, on April 22, they lowered their bid to $5.50 a share, but remained in cash and asked Palm to agree to a high-level meeting. Two days later, HP raised its offer and ended up winning 5.70 dollars a share in Palm's proxy and potential buyers.　　C declined to increase the price further, but made a new proposal to make a separate deal to fund 800 million of billions of dollars to obtain the non-exclusive mandate of webOS. Who is the C company? For now, the biggest suspect is Taiwan's HTC, a mobile phone company that now has a growing smartphone business, but still relies heavily on Android.　　451 Group's Hazelton also thinks HTC is likely to be an eager buyer. "They have no operating system of their own and no corresponding IP," he explains. I think the C company is HTC. However, speculation is only speculation. Most of the companies mentioned above either refused to comment or simply ignored the interview request. What's really interesting now is whether these disillusioned buyers will look for other deals.　　How will this industry change in the future? (Author of this article: Therese Poletti)