There has been a lot of rumour and speculation recently concerning the sale of Palm, culminating today in news that Nokia may well be the new proud owners as early as tomorrow... but is it true?
Nokia has been the front runner for a while now. The Finnish giant's President and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo has been spending one week per month in the States trying to improve Nokia’s market share in US, and acquiring Palm would certainly help with that.
However, a major shareholder told America's CNBC that he expects Motorola to close a deal with Palm Thursday morning for roughly $2bn.
The anonymous shareholder confirmed the troubled Palm contacted Morgan Stanley in January in order to tout it about, with things coming to a head over the last couple of weeks.
Negotiations were said to have been held with Nokia and two private equity firms, but more recently Moto signaled their interest and have jumped into the mixing pot.
"For Motorola, I think it's the threat of Nokia owning Palm. The upside for Motorola is much greater. If they own Palm, they're really the most substantial player running the Windows (Mobile) operating system. Motorola could become a key Microsoft partner," the shareholder told CNBC.
The unidentified investor pointed to Apple's foray into the mobile market as in instigator for Palm's sale.
"Apple is about to walk away with the OS (operating system) market for handheld computers," he said. "Microsoft has been successful because it's always owned the OS. In some ways, the iPhone from Apple is a trojan horse, a handheld computer running the Mac Os that's poised to take over the world."
"It's clear this company has to be sold. It can't go this far without saying anything. It's basically damaged at this point and needs to be acquired,"
However, a major shareholder told America's CNBC that he expects Motorola to close a deal with Palm Thursday morning for roughly $2bn.
The anonymous shareholder confirmed the troubled Palm contacted Morgan Stanley in January in order to tout it about, with things coming to a head over the last couple of weeks.
Negotiations were said to have been held with Nokia and two private equity firms, but more recently Moto signaled their interest and have jumped into the mixing pot.
"For Motorola, I think it's the threat of Nokia owning Palm. The upside for Motorola is much greater. If they own Palm, they're really the most substantial player running the Windows (Mobile) operating system. Motorola could become a key Microsoft partner," the shareholder told CNBC.
The unidentified investor pointed to Apple's foray into the mobile market as in instigator for Palm's sale.
"Apple is about to walk away with the OS (operating system) market for handheld computers," he said. "Microsoft has been successful because it's always owned the OS. In some ways, the iPhone from Apple is a trojan horse, a handheld computer running the Mac Os that's poised to take over the world."
"It's clear this company has to be sold. It can't go this far without saying anything. It's basically damaged at this point and needs to be acquired,"