Apple Palmed off by HP in takeover deal

World's biggest tech company tried to buy Palm before HP stepped in

Apple Palmed off by HP in takeover deal. Hardware, Apple, Palm, RIM, HP, Google 0

16 July 2010 10:53 GMT / By Paul Lamkin

A Business Insider report has suggested that Apple tried to buy Palm before HP successfully completed its $1.2 billion takeover back in April.

The report hints that Apple was interested in Palm's intellectual property, which included 450 patents and 400 further patent applications, and threw in a $600 million bid for the Sunnyvale based company. The report also states that this was the second time Steve Jobs had tried to get his hands on Palm after failing with a buy-out when the company was owned by 3Com.

The report says that there were 15 other interested parties as well including Google (who were only interested because Apple were) and RIM, who apparently blew the deal after initially bidding more than HP.

Lenovo were the leading candidate to win the battle for Palm at one point, although surprisingly Nokia were never involved in the bidding.

HP got the deal done in the end, as we all know, and now we're waiting for a raft of WebOS devices to hit the shops.

Kinda makes you wonder what Apple would have done with the company though doesn't it?

The iPhone 5 could have been a smart-superphone with all the best ingredients of WebOS and iOS chucked in together. You never know, it may have even been able to keep its signal.

Via: businessinsider.com

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Hardware, Apple, Palm, RIM, HP, Google