Palm, the darling of the mobile phone industry 3+ years ago has fallen on bad times, but their knight in shining armor - HP - may have arrived in the nick of time. HP acquires all of Palm's assets, including some real juicy mobile phone technology patents. What HP will do with those patents remains to be seen. But any way you slice or dice it, this is huge news even if my dreams of a HTC-Palm merger are dashed.

HP and Palm, Inc. announced that HP will purchase Palm, a provider of smartphones powered by the Palm webOS mobile operating system, at a price of $5.70 per share of Palm common stock in cash or an enterprise value of approximately $1.2 billion. The transaction has been approved by the HP and Palm boards of directors.

"Palm's innovative operating system provides an ideal platform to expand HP's mobility strategy and create a unique HP experience spanning multiple mobile connected devices," said Todd Bradley, executive vice president, Personal Systems Group, HP. "And, Palm possesses significant IP assets and has a highly skilled team. The smartphone market is large, profitable and rapidly growing, and companies that can provide an integrated device and experience command a higher share. Advances in mobility are offering significant opportunities, and HP intends to be a leader in this market."

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