Bono and former Apple staff buy into Palm

Expect a red and black version with US2 dates shortly

4 June 2007 17:46 GMT / By Stuart Miles

The private equity firm that lists Bono as one of its partners is buy a 25% stake in Palm the Wall Street Journal is reporting.

Elevation Partners will invest $325 million for that stake, and bring on board a number of former Apple staff including Apple's former head of hardware responsible for pioneering the iPod.

Furthermore Fred Anderson, a partner at Elevation and a former Apple CFO, will join Palm’s board, as will another Elevation partner, Roger McNamee.

Palm’s longtime chairman, Eric Benhamou, and another director, Scott Mercer, will leave the company’s board.

The news comes as a surprise move following rumours in March that the company was to be bought by Motorola.

The company, who specialises in PDA, has in recent years lost its way as more and more business users switch to smartphones such as the BlackBerry away from a static PDA device.

Last week, the company launched the Palm Foleo, which in Palm's words is "the perfect companion for your smartphone", the Foleo is a small laptop-sized device with a 10-inch screen and full-sized keyboard that connects wirelessly with your smartphone.

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