To some it was going to be a match made in heaven with HTC getting their, much needed, very own OS and Palm saved from certain doom, but now HTC has reportedly pulled out of talks to buy the flagging mobile maker according to "sources close to the matter".

"HTC, the world's No.5 smartphone brand, will not bid for Palm after reviewing the company's numbers", a source told Reuters on Friday.

The news leaves Lenovo, also rumoured to be interested, the only one publicly in the game.

Why aren't HTC going after the maker of the Palm Pre and Palm Pixi?

"There just weren't enough synergies to take the deal forward", said the source with direct knowledge of the matter, who declined to be named because the deal had not yet been made public claim Reuters.

Analysts predict that the matter could be more to do with Palm haemorrhaging cash like a plane going down.

While Palm enjoyed a brief renaissance at the start of 2009 with the launch of the Palm Pre and operating system, webOS, the company has struggled to build on the euphoria and excitement from the gadget press following the announcement with poor sales and a lack of new models to fuel the urge to go "Palm".

Lenovo meanwhile, who currently focuses on laptops, having bought IBMs laptop division some years ago, currently only has a smattering of smartphones, but none outside of its native China.

Analysts predict that buying Palm would allow them use the buy as a launch pad into the US market.

Other companies linked in the past to Palm have been Motorola, a company that had shared the same ups and downs in popularity in recent years.

We will keep you posted.