Elevation Partners Stand Strong With Palm 82
Palm's stocks may have fallen, but that doesn't appear to have shaken Elevation Partners. On the contrary, they're hold strong and standing with Palm in the belief that Palm's webOS is the future of mobile computing.
Elevation Partners have a long history of investing with Palm. They currently control roughly 30% of the company and have invested a total $460 million invested in Palm. An Elevation Partners spokesman told Reuters,
"Jon and his team have built the best mobile operating system available today and they are now working through short-term execution challenges with Elevation's complete support."
The statement might not be overly surprising, but it is definitely a welcome note of support. The statement's wording of "short-term execution challenges" might seem optimistic, but recall that Elevation and Palm believe that webOS is a ten year strategy.
82 Comments
Always nice to hear good news.
Good to hear. I don't want to back to the stone age without WebOs!
The guy on the way left isn't part of Elevation Partners. He may have somehow done something for the team to be in that picture, but he is not an investor.
For some reason I looked them all up on google, lol.
Who owns the other %70? And how do they feel?
...the public owns the other 70% of Palm - at least of what I can remember reading! On any note, I still believe Palm will bring us out of this "doom & gloom" state and w/ Elevation still backing them...things will only get better.
"...things have to be at it's worst in order to reach it's best!"
Something Palm could do is say, "eff the stock market w/ it's bias analysts" and just go private so they can focus on webOS n hardware w/o being bothered w/ "doom" analytic predictions. But idk what's that process like...or more important how the consumer will take it.
I'm always cool with eff the market. It's the checking account that bites right now. 6 months of phones warehoused in an industry where things obsolete in 6 months at the market level. And roughly 12 months of cash on hand. WebOS may be a 10 year plan, but they only have a year of money until something fundamental does a total 180.
One certain PreCentral editor I know of could say, "eff the stock market w/ it's bias analysts"... and I'm sure everybody here would get along just fine.
STOCKS ARE TOTALLY UNRELATED TO WEBOS, WHICH IS WHY PEOPLE COME HERE. STOCKS ARE FOR THE BIRDS.
How 'bout a show of hands... what PreCentral readers actually want to see stock prices at P|C at all, much less on a bi-weekly basis???
I know I sure don't.
What's the real reason to show stock updates here on a bi-weekly basis?? Just because you can't find anything LEGITIMATE to write about? Is that it? Honestly? Nobody wants to see it, at least not here... We're all perfectly capable of typing "palm stock" into Mr. Goog and getting the up2date quote just fine.
The feature titles are pretty clear, if you bother to read the story, that's a personal matter. For a company on the brink of rebirth or a DNR order, this is a valid concern for the future of the Pre and PREcentral. Just because you don't like the story, doesn't mean the editor is a bad guy.
Start a site weboscental.com and only allow sunny days and no bad news if you like.
double dippin'
My comment was general, obviously unrelated to this story whatsoever.
I said... "NOBODY WANTS TO SEE STOCK PRICES". This article has nothing to do with stock prices.
One mentioning "dropping like a rock made of hot death" is an example of one I could go without.
I want to see stock prices.
Actually, I just looked at the research portion of my brokerage account & it says about 65% is owned by Mutual Funds/Institutional Mutual Funds. I guess some of that is the public, but not bought directly (like stock) by the public. Some names familiar to most as of 3/19:
-Fidelity Brokerage Services (FMR LCC)=15%
-T. Rowe Price=14+%
-Capital World Investors =10+%
-Morgan Stanley=8+%
-Vanguard=3+%
-State Street=3+%
-4 others at 3+%
Bigger problem in terms of stock price is that there is a 43% Sell Short position.
I'm not a broker, but wanted to make sure info was accurate.
i think to go private they'd have to buy back the remainaing shares. with a market cap of $670,790,000 then the remaining shares would amount to $469,553,000. I don't think Palm has $469,553,000 laying around to buy shares back. And even if they did they still wouldn't be in any better position. They'd own all of a company that's hemorrhaging cash and has sales trouble. That doesn't make there situations any better. If they have the money it may be better spent on releasing a couple phones that are much much better. Or maybe getting out of the hard ware business and licensing the OS for others. Then you don't need to fit the bill for for manufacturing, etc. But i don't see buying back the outstanding shares as addressing the underlying real problems with this company which is sales.
Palm cannot afford to buy their shares back. If they did, they would have no money for day to day ongoing operations. Anyone else has no need to buy 100% of the shares. They only need enough to have a simple voting majority, or to control the BOD, or team w/a partner to control the shares.
Yrs ago, Delta Airlines was trying to buy Continental Airlines by making an offer for all their stock. BUT what happened was Northwest Airlines spent about 1/10th of the money to get preferred stock which controlled 51% of voting stock. Eventually, they sold back the preferred stock, but kept a single "golden" share which still gave them a lot of power over Continental.
I want Palm to remain independent & be successful. I don't know, however, if they have any sort of poison pill in order to prevent a buy out. I also don't know if anyone is serious about buying Palm. What are WebOS & the patents worth?
Crossing fingers for a great 2.0.
Preferred issues carry no votes. You might be confusing "poison pill" strategies in this situation.
Going private would likely depend on EP or Palm making an offer at a specific price or computation of price and I believe they'd need shareholder approval. There would be a premium to be paid. But, no benefit to privatizing that I know of, so moot. EP already has a functional controlling interest. And Palm is not a viable going concern.
oh , well I did that roughly 400% thing some time ago and purchased the Pre from that gain here in Germany. Now it's a good price for trying it again :-)
Get the unlocked GSM out to Europe and the US - it would fly off the shelves. Don't worry about keeping Verizon happy - what have they done anyway?
Okay, do tree species depend on elevation level? For example, i know that palm trees grow on low elevation beach like areas while as spruce grows on is higher.
What about others? Silver Bruch? Pine? Redwood and etc. Do they depend on elevation and terrain level?
Top Grade Acai
Repent Spammer!
Hang in there Palm!
You only need better hardware and better advertising and the future will belong to webOS! And sell them everywhere in the world, also unlocked!
Yes, Bring it down under... Australia has a history of fast uptake of technology and will be a good market for Palm. Android has no traction here yet so now is the time. My money, along with a lot of others here, is waiting for you Palm.
Trust me Williamb, if Palm could they would. If they had the resources, they'd be all over it I'm sure.
I believe that Palm has given up on Australia and closed their office there in January.
http://www.channelnews.com.au/Communication/Industry/U9F3S5U3?print=1
I agree that WebOS is a very good investment. It needs to mature a little more. I'd suggest Palm look at the Palm 755p and take the foundational and best features of it. Morph those features into the freshness of WebOS. I was quite disappointed when my Pre could do simple things like sort my e-mail at launch.
Also, Palm needs two or maybe three really cool devices with innovative & solid hardware on a larger carrier (although I love Sprint's plans). So, here are some ideas which is not very new but here goes. A hot new super smart phone. A really cool entry level smart phone like the Pixi and Centro but with a name that guys would not have a problem saying that they have one of. (How many guys wants to say that I have a Pixi? Centro was not too bad. But Pixi, come on now. I find it hard to type.) And dare I suggest it, but an awesome slate type device has everything that the iPad, Kindle, Nook, Dell Mini 5, etc has.
Then market add some really cool marketing like the new ad but aim the marketing at a broader audience.
Then Palm will be in the game - competing a good level - but the new Android devices and the new iPhone will be tough opponents.
I don't watch TV often, but when I do, the ads are all Verizon vs AT&T, and Droid vs iPhone.
They don't even mention vs Sprint or vs webOS.
/That/ in my opinion hurts.
If the competition doesn't have an ad campaign against you, then they don't consider you competition.
I would be not worried about Palm, they will bounce back! And with new devices being introduced and more network carriers around the world their share would be high up in 15s like where it was by Q1 2011.
1. Its important to the stock market that Elevation partners stand up to support PALM given the recent occurances. The net result of the overall market is that PALM's future is questionable, but, the actions of the major investors (insiders, as they call them), are key to how the market will treat the stock during these tough times.
2. Analysts predicting a "$0" value have intentions for the stock to achieve that goal. They work for and with stock brokers and investment bankers, all with clients and thier own vested interests in the direction of movement of stocks, in one way or another (and, believe me, there are MANY ways for them and thier associates and clients to profit from this, some ways are extremely innocuous).
3. Every company goes through troubled times. PALMs problem is that thiers occurred too quickly after a recovery, and there was not enough time to allow enough company fundamentals to support a much higher stock price, so, the market speculators had no more reason to speculate positively, and turned negative, where the negative speculation was easier to make money from (down side).
4. Remember, 8 years ago, Apple was written off, as well. Im NOT saying that PALM is in any way like Apple, but I am just pointing out that this type of thing does happen to good companies who have come to critical points in thier existence before, and turnarounds do happen.
5. See my post on the forums for what I think PALM has to do to succeed:
http://forums.precentral.net/showthread.php?p=2318731#post2318731
LCGuy point #3, if you're going to ignore the stock price, you have to actually ignore the stock price. There never was a recovery, Palm continues to run for a loss and their death spiral increases in angle as the market fails to embrace the best O/S in the world. The stock has gone up and down, but Palm's balance sheet nightmare has run nonstop. The accounting is not the analyst's doing.
PreDogs;
Just offering an explanation based on experience; not making excuses.
I know the street very well. Its not a matter of eventually being right or wrong - its a matter of being right or wrong to make an immediate profit.
That is the sole key and motive in the market. Momentum and any excuse to create that momentum, "right" or "wrong".
Analysts are paid to do just that, or to help others do just that, despite what most people think. They aren't "neutral", by any stretch of the imagination, and basing one's investment decisions on thier advice is almost always like being 4 hours late to the greatest 3 hour party ever!
The reference to Palm's "recovery" was to thier stock price, and not thier business success. That was started, but never followed through due to hardware issues and a poor decision regarding carrier partneship. :)
Thanks for your comment though.
Thanks for clarifying. Analysts tend to amplify reality. And, yes, they are far from neutral, they tend to make money for their employers by creating hysteria that causes people to buy or sell stock. Much as we hate them, what they say does tend to have an under current of truth. Secondary research is a must.
They have "an under current of truth", precisely for the reason you just stated -- they CREATE the hysteria that causes people to buy or sell.
What does PreCentral do to hysteria, when they just feed into this "under current of truth"? THEY AMPLIFY IT!
Do either PreCentral editor or readers want to amplify negativity on a bi-weekly basis is my question for you all...
Blah... WHY NOT CREATE OUR OWN TRUTH?!? ... or at least ignore this "truth".
P.S. - truth ain't Truth unless it's capitalized.
Well if someone is coming to PC for investing guidance, we can't fix them, they're in Darwin's waiting room.
But, Palm is in a deep enough hole that stock news is very significant to supporters of WebOS. Nobody cried about stock news on the way up, if you don't like the trip down, close your eyes and scream.
that was very informative. Thanks!
One of my favorite Buffet "isms":
"Be fearful when others are greedy...and greedy when others are fearful."
Monday I'm gonna put some money where my mouth is and buy some Palm stock. If everyone jawing on these forums did the same Elevation Partners wouldn't be the only owners with a stake.
I live in Palm Beach.
So let me guess this straight. They have bono from U2 as a partner. Why the hell aren't they putting him in commercials with the Pre.
if bono want to make some money for palm and his partners he will do a commercial
According to the Wikipedia article I just read, a company doesn't make or lose money when their stock price goes up or down.
So Palm has the same amount of cash at $0 stock of $1000 stock prices.
Let the market do it's thing.
Let Palm do theirs.
(But make sure we tell our friends that webOS is NOT dead.)
Company would be bankrupt at $0/share. There is an inability to raise money for future operations. Their cash flow is currently negative + they don't have a lot of cash. I am not saying their stock price will go to zero (I hope not), but if it does they are toast. Because they have WebOS & the patents, however, I suspect they could find either other private partners (like Elevation Partners) or someone (Google, Dell, Nokia) would buy them prior to that, while it is cheap--just my guess.
Looking at analysts as of this week, Fidelity's most accurate had 5 saying hold the stock & 2 saying sell. When they included all analysts reviewing the stock, there were 11 saying hold, 5 sell, 1 underperform,
So a $0 stock price is not good, but not all analysts think that's where it is headed, though there weren't ringing endorsements either.
roney is correct regarding cash, but the underlying threat is that a competitor can buy Palm and end them at this price.
I think that Elevation Partners has seen an early version of webOS 2.0 & palm's up&coming hardware. Why?because, they're palm's most closely investors, & they have seen the glimps of the future, in mobile gaming. There partners are inpress, & wants CEO(Rubi)&his team to finish this OS. WebOS is a very next generation OS, & in the future palm will strive ahead of it's competitors,& be more advance in mobile computing,than their competitors. Current webOS is in beta form right now,& has a lots of bugs,that's why palm didn't care investing in a solid hardware, with an early beta testing new OS. When webOS mature,or advance to version 2.0, & bug free,than we gonna see a much more solid hardware with a sofiscated OS,& much more rebost, advertising. Palm will learn from this,& comeback more smarter,& careful. We all know,& they know that, their next hardware gonna have a bigger screen, than what we have now,because that's what the market wants right now. With their new PDK released to the public,& the releases of new apps or games, in a few months, tells me, they will release all those new apps,or games,right in time for a new hardware,& a new rebost,webOS 2.0, to WOW the public with their new offering. Palm definatley, got something up their sleeve,it just a matter of time. That's why, Elevation Partners sees, & wants them to complete. We can only hope,cause I love webOS, & I will like to see them in the future.Good luck palm, your gonna make it.
I hope you're right. It wouldn't surprise me, Palm will definitely fight all the way
Then EP better invest another half billion to dump 1 million unsold phones, develop a new o/s to replace the one they never finished, build and market new harware.
The challenges are greater now than a year ago and a half billion last year got us where we are now.
I'm sure that they've got Webos 2.0 well under way. How far along it is, and how competitive it is only a handful of people know.
Now, no software release is bug free. Not Android, or iPhone OS, or BB os or even MS Win 7. What you want is the least amount of noticeable bugs possible. If they're close to a stable WebOS 2.0 then they should let people know as soon as possible. I agree it's only a matter of time, but they don't have much time.
Or... they could find a partner. (Does ACER want to get into making phone hardware? Maybe a tablet?) Or they could merge. (Does NVIDIA want to make their own phone?) There are other solutions to just being bought.
And they should find the most reliable hardware manufacturers possible.
If I were Jon, (I know, I know, there's a thread for this) I'd a) snap up all of the WebOS internal programers I could. I'd take all of the information about all of the patches and themes and overclocking I could. I would blend everything into WebOS 2.0. b) Build a snapdragon cpu rock solid phone with an oled glass screen, get rid of the keyboard (as much as it pains me to say it. I HATE touchscreen keyboards, but alas, I think this is the future) I'd also integrate an updated Graffiti (why let that IP go to waste) and c)I'd dump any marketing for the Pre. Dump the brand. Create a NEW brand. I know, I know we all love the Pre, but they need a new public perception. I'd get out of any contract that I had with Sprint, and go for a Verizon premier release of a completely new Brand. d) Give away as many Pres to developers that want them. Like YESTERDAY. (Okay, I'm done with my backseat driver rant)
Everyone, even Engadget, are telling Jon what to do, because we all love the company and want to see it survive. I've actually been on the board of a company that was on the brink of complete collapse that is now thriving. I know what those board meetings are like. I also know that it is possible to come back when the entire world thinks you are dead in the water. We all hope that Palm can do the same thing.
Where is 2.0 coming from? Last time I checked, they were thrashing nonstop to get 1.0 completed. These operating systems dont come off a shelf at Target. They take a year or more to develop. And what's wrong with 1.x? Do we really want to start from scratch AGAIN? Are we ready to ditch 1.0 as a failure? Garnet ran and developed for many years, what limit has 1.0 hit?
And while I'd like to see them release more robust hardware, what is to be done with the 1 million units sitting unsold? They have a cost and a real value. THAT'S A REAL NUMBER THAT MUST BE DEALT WITH. If you announced a new device, even if it's not due until September, who's going to buy a Pre or Pixi knowing that for most of their 2 year commitment, it will be an inferior Palm device?
These simple minded solutions are a scarey distance from the realities of the calendar and simple financial math.
Jon Rubenstein made it clear that the development of the OS and the phone is a two year process. So two years ago they started the road map for WebOS.
The guys not stupid. He does have a plan. Lets hope that the same ingenuity that lead him to kill the floppy disk, and helped to create the ipod, and the peripheral ecosystem, and the iphone is still with him.
Two years, and I would say 1.0 is nearly complete and ready for refinement and upgrades. He didn't say it was a two year life cycle. If it is, the conpany is doomed because WebOS lost money and Palm lost credibility. Endgame.
His challenge is now to sell the excess supply of product, that sells slower every month. Please help him on that, I'm sure that's not in the two year plan.
OK, I might be stupid, but would someone please explain why so many feel Palm needs to distance itself from Sprint? Maybe there is already a forum for that, and I'm wasting everyones time, but it seems the two can really assist each other here. Both have something to offer the consumer that the other providers and makers can't. (affordable plans and future WIMAX with Inovative OS). I know, many of you will say people don't change carriers for phones, but that is total BS. Look what I-Phone did for AT&T. I've only been with Sprint for almost three years, but I can't understand why no one can see the relationship between Palm and Sprint as an advantage. Verizon's in bed with Droid. Does Palm want to be in an affair with Verizon as the "other phone", or stay happy in its marriage with Sprint? Verizon will NEVER flagship anything from Palm.
Stocks are a strong reflection of a company's performance. I understand people don't CARE about stocks but for shareholders (such as myself)...investor money dictates some of how a company can proceed with their product plans. If PALM didn't have the investor money, they don't have the resources for research, development, and implementation. Obviously their sales are weaker than expected...so don't think that sales revenue will provide the funding for future products. So yeah...investors and stocks play a bigger role than what people who say "STOCKS ARE TOTALLY UNRELATED TO WEBOS, WHICH IS WHY PEOPLE COME HERE. STOCKS ARE FOR THE BIRDS"
Retarded. Without investors and stocks, there would BE NO WEBOS by now.
My point is that stocks are only, "generally", a reflection of a company's performance... not even close to a "strong" reflection, otherwise they wouldn't fluctuate at microseconds from 9 to 5 every business day... based around GOSSIP and HI-VOLUME COMPUTERS that use **ALGORITHMS BASED ON GOSSIP**!!
If the largest Palm enthusiast forum is reporting bi-weekly that Palm stock IS the pits... what do you think will happen to the stocks after people react to this catalyst that is "Can't wait for 20 Min to see the new stock price and then share the good news" Derek?
I would bet my life, and even the lives of every person that I hold dear to me... that the stock would have been better if PreCentral just completely ignored days where the stock didn't drop more than 25% or so... *AND* more phones would have been sold, since more potential webOS consumers would have found this place moreso than most any other after a simple bit of research. Today, I can understand ONE article on some CRAZY stock swing... but would this article have needed to be written if there weren't 30 other articles on PreCentral every other day???
The stock would've gone up if you block out the negative and focus on the positive... but nobody at Palm wants to do it. And Derek sure was persistent with the stock prices.
A big thing that I've been stressing is PARTNERSHIPS. The reason that Fox News didn't want to publish an EXTREMELY negative story on Monsanto (recombinant growth hormone stuff) is because Monsanto was paying them for advertising blocks!! (google Monsanto Fox) If Palm was actually paying for WSJ blocks... NYT blocks... they would have altered reality like they normally do, plugging Palm in more comparisons (notice that they VERY RARELY *EVER* plugged the Pre).
I understand that Derek wants to get everything he possibly can out there... but the frequency could have been a lot less is all I'm getting at... as close to 0 as possible, if it's not good. There's no way that Derek can't tell me he understands this.
Think Positive
Think Benefits
Think 1UP's
Day-In & Day-Out
You will SEE change if you BECOME the change you WANT to see.
True. Personally, I want to know stock information. As much as it really sucks to hear it, I still want to know. And I want Precentral to keep an eye on it. With any luck, one day, there will be good stock news to report.
Who am I kidding, with a LOT of luck. ;)
"short term execution" is a wonderful turn-of-phrase to describe Palm's challenges right now. I lol'd at the double meaning that could be applied, but I won't go there right now.
I don't think E.P. wants to own a controlling stake in Palm right now, but if Palm's stock does tank, they might buy up a bunch of shares to protect their stake.
i'm glad to see that they are still supporting Palm and have a long view of the challenges. Palm can recover, but they need to take some drastic measures in the short term to make it work.
I believe this official statement from Elevation like I believe Palm's official statement about the Chinese New Year shutdown:
"Palm regularly adjusts its product manufacturing levels to manage inventory. In anticipation of the Verizon Wireless launch and Chinese New Year, we increased production levels prior to February, and anticipate ramping production back up after the Chinese New Year ends."
This was after Palm recognized that Verizon sales were very slow, had started Project Jumpstart., and was in the midst of building up a 500,000 unit production surplus for the quarter. Not a hint that anything is amiss in this statement, is there? Everything is hunky dory. Go ahead and buy the stock at $12. They are ramping up production right after Chinese New Year ends.
yeah, I'm sore at that whole episode as well. My guess is that Palm had contractual obligations related to the production of thos units, either with carriers or with the actual manufacturer. They need to keep this in mind for the future, and make sure they have more flexibilty in their production cycle. It would be better to have shortages at the retail end than have too much inventory clogging your distribution channels.
But all that being said, I see no reason to doubt E.P. on this point. They aren't saying everythings okay, they're just saying that they aren't pulling out their support for Palm's management right now.
+1
stupid dup post. Sorry.
Go Elevation Partners!! and Palm....i believe!!!! =)
Where have you gone, Jeff Hawkins, palm nation turns it's lonely eyes to you. Oh oh oh.
I agree with the above.this market changes every six months and palm is trying to sell a year old phone. Today the sellers are 3.5 or bigger screens with a Snapdragon chip. The old ways of a year or two Centro still selling are over. Palm can't compete with Google Blackberry Microsoft or Apple. Just the reality. They need a deep pocketed hardware maker who has the cash to update the hardware every six months. Read Dell wants to be in the phone biz, they have cash and know how to build and design hardware. My money is on palm selling outright or creating a partnership. Webos is too cool to disappear. Then again the same was said about beta and intellivision....
Too true. There was a rumour a year ago that Palm had put in an order for the processor that is coming out after the snapdragon. Its a dual core cpu, the same one that's going into the next iphone. If the rumour is true, then Palm is getting something ready that has a better processor than the snapdragon.
If they can actually afford to buy the part.
Regarding the 10 year plan, it's standard operating procedure for venture capital firms to have a basket of projects, looking for one or two home-runs with the expectation of cashing out within 10 years. However there are plenty of projects that won't make it anywhere near 10 years. If it isn't looking like a company like Palm can turn a significant profit, there's no way that they are going to let them burn through hundreds of millions of dollars of cash for no reason.
If it looks like Palm can not compete as a stand-alone entity then Elevation will actively seek an acquisition partner. What current Palm management wants has little to do with it since the CEO usually leaves.
The wording of the statement is rather telling. They only discuss the software--i.e., the WebOS mobile operating system--as opposed to touting the phones, hardware, overall experience, etc. This is in conjunction with Rubinstein's suggestion during the quarterly report that Palm is now open to licensing the OS with the right partner.
This is in stark contrast to his comments up to this point that an "integrated" solution, where the same company makes the OS and the hardware, is the best solution.
I hope for the best. I really do not want any other device. I have considered what other device I would want. I really cant imagine another device anymore. While the iPhone and nexus one are tempting, they just are not tempting enough. The iPhone has apps and easy to use and nexus has awesome specs, but they don't have mojo that WebOS has.
The things I would miss so much about WebOS that I just hate to go with out now.
Still has the capabilities to be techy, but at the same time SO EASY to use. They do not make it complicated anyone can pick it up and figure it out. I am a tech junky but think it can still be made easy.
Multitasking, and it is handled so well. Swiping from one card to the next or swiping card away is a joy. Being able to stream music and work on an app is great.
When backing up to previous screens of a application I love swiping back rather than finding a back button.
Touchstone. I LOVE just setting my device on the charger in the house and in my car. I throw it on the charger in the car and throw online radio on and bluetooth it to my car. And at the same time can multitask other apps.
3D games and with the PDK capability of great apps.
Easy to program for and hack and hard to brick.
I know it is not perfect and that they have things to touch up, but they are working on it. And there has been hardware problems (maybe more than other manufacturers). I think they have fixed some of this. I personally have had very good luck with my Pre. I like the way it feels in my hand (cant imagine using a Droid), it has been sturdy, It feels good sliding open/shut.
All in all when I think of what other device I would go to I just get a bit sad, because I really would not want to give up these features. Just to enjoyable to use.
And PS: While I am a Palm fan, I am not a fanboy. I like all tech, and want the best. And I think that WebOS has the capability to be the best with the PDK out and down the road with better hardware. To bad sometimes the best means going with the underdog.
Dear Stockholders:
We've dumped a crapload of money into the WebOS and watched the management team take us for a ride. Do you think we'd walk away from such a huge investment? Of course not. Of course we're crapping bricks but we're going to put together as much of a supportive announcement as we can. Does that mean we're going to commit another $150 million into this project?
Heck no. We are now praying to Vishnu and every other deity, including Sergey Brin, that Google will be foolish enough to buy us out for big money like they did YouTube, which would have run out of cash yet was bought for 1.5 billion whoppers.
Thanks for listening. We're going to lock ourselves in until we can get a grip on our investment. Thanks.
Bono and the Vox.
And if you believe you'll ever see WebOS 2.0, then perhaps I can interest you in an Atari ST computer?
Now why do you have to go to that level? I even had Atari stock and still have a TT. That stock made me money.
As mentioned in one of the forum threads, production of both the Pre and the Pixi have been halted.
http://www.americanbankingnews.com/2010/03/20/palm-nasdasq-palm-announce...
And I am applying for an executive job at Palm! j.k. =)
I know there will be a 2.0 just like i know id whoop you in kaboom right now on atari
Elevation Partners would not do a Press Release saying that they had lost confidence in Palm...to do so would just further weaken Palm's already fragile position. E.P. has a vested interest in Palm's business health, but even if they were getting ready to bail they wouldn't say anything until they had actually pulled out or arranged a buyer...here again so that the stock prices remain as high as possible.
I also doubt that any other company will make a bid for Palm at this stage. All that they really need to do is wait for the stock value to tank and then pick up the pieces. Palm has some fantastic I.P. that would undoubtedly be worth acquiring.
Elevation Partners standing by their company is all well and good but the reality is that unless EP has some kind of magical cash flow, how's Palm going to stay in business?
Businesses require money. Otherwise, they die. WebOS may indeed be the best mobile OS on the planet (and after using a BB, WinMo, iPhoneOS and Android, I'd agree!) but without anyone actually BUYING the phone, it will mean nothing.
The iPhone is becoming a household name - soon, we'll refer to smartphones as iphones much the way copiers are "xerox" machines. I believe it's only at that point will another OS be able to break in.
The iPhone killer will be the iPhone.
> soon, we'll refer to smartphones as iphones
> much the way copiers are "xerox" machines.
If I may be allowed a moment of unbridled fanboism: I will *never* refer to my smartphone as an "iphone."
Not even in the unlikely event that I ever own an actual iphone.
Well I wonder if Palm did go out of business, how would we be able to redownload the apps we currently own? I could get along pretty good with my current apps, but I don't have access to them on my own PC.
Regarding sales.
Palm should do a more GLOBAL approach instead of focusing mainly on US markets...
Look at how the rest of the software platforms are received in Europe and make your conclusion...
Keep on track Palm just make another phone with better hardware and a lil bit of new software and with webos 2.0 and update all webos phone with the same and your back on track with the big boys. Please don't panic everything will be alright we have faith in you.
"They currently control roughly 30% of the company and have invested a total $460 million invested in Palm."
I would hang around to.....
FWIW, after looking over the financials in a little bit more detail, it looks like, despite this HUGE problem of a glut of phones in the pipe, Palm is in good shape to beat their numbers from FY09.
Last year, Palm managed to retire about $1 BILLION in debt, and while they have made very little progress on the remaining debt this year, it looks like the debt number hasn't creeped up too much, and much of the paltry increase is due to contractual (read: manufacturing) obligations. The amount of interest that they are paying is down significantly, which is a big help to them in their cash strapped position. The only question is are they going to be able to pay all of the short term contacts on time without burning the cash that they have.
If the story about Palm halting production is true (I have some reservations about the article; no one else has picked it up,) I take it as a good sign. I was on here Thursday night saying that was the first thing they needed to do. This is a sign that they are willing to make some hard decisions at tough times. Had they not done this, Palm would have gone bankrupt in less than 6 months, according to the numbers.
Now Palm has to begin courting new partnerships and investors. IF the next device is on the way, and IF the operating system has significant developments that make it more valuable, and add to that Palm's patent holdings, Palm should be able to attract at least a couple hundred million in new cash, which may be enough to complete the production and marketing of the new device, and that is assuming that Palm has already done most of the R&D necessary to actually build the device.
Sorry everyone, Palm will have near 0 income for the coming quarter, and will ship near 0 phones. If they are smart, they will wait until production is in near full swing before making the announcement for the next device. But, like I said, they could possibly still beat their numbers from last year, and that would be huge for them.
I'm still hopeful for Palm. I'm a big fan of my Pre and WebOS, but time is running out.
Launch new WebOS software globally with an aggressive ad campaign.
Immediate availability of the Palm Pre Plus in other countries discounted to existing Palm Pre owners, this would help shift stock in readiness for any hardware update.
Hold off launch of any new hardware that would coincide with Apple
They a need a new phone by June or they will lose a lot of people me being one of them. The HTC Supersonic is coming that's the phone ill be getting unless palm can come up with similar hardware im switching to android. you can thank Sprint for that and the yearly upgrade. I have never owned any cell phone for more then a year I like new stuff.
could Palm be making things look bad the lower the stock on purpose. Why wouldn't EP want to buy out stock at a low price. For instance, Jon says that Palm has over a million devices on the shelves. Could they be AT&T devices or C40 devices. How about unlocked Pres. Also, why wouldn't Palm stopproduction on Pres and Pixis if something new is coming. They've got to be pretty pleased with how thing have gone considering where they were heading. There was a growing gap in the market that only apple was filling. Think of this, the smart phone market is growing still. Who's going to fill in the gap.
Those are some good questions!
EP does want to buy at a low price, but looks like they don't have much cash left to invest right now. Palm is about break-even for them now, only one of their investments has made money, and all the rest have tanked. (I can't belive they bought Forbes; that seemed like a lost cause from the get-go!)
It is impossible to know right now what those devices were. Given the timing of it, I would say that they are almost certainly VZW CDMA units. I suspect that the ATT and other GSM units that were coming have never been produced. If production resumes, I would also guess that those would be the first to be produced...assuming that they produce any of the gen1 devices. The safer bet for Palm would be to go on to the next gen device and forget the Pre/Pixi.
If the Pre and Pixi were selling like hotcakes, they could keep them as entry level devices when the new hardware came out.
I agree, things are going "better" for them than what they are 12-16 months ago. But they are still bleeding money, and because they have already received payment for the units that they expected for '10Q4 beacuse of early shipments, their income will be substantially reduced for the coming quarter.
Yes, the market is growing rapidly, and EVERYONE ELSE is filling that gap. Palm's mistake was gambling too much on the Verizon launch. They need to keep things small and lean until they have build some real success in terms of PROFITS!
I really don't think the Palm OS will ever be better than the Ipod OS. Palm is really going to have to step up their game if they want to continue to vie for market share with the new big players in the cell phone business.
Sincerely,
Kathy Williams
http://www.topgradeacaiextreme.org