PalmSource To Be Acquired By ACCESS

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.access-us-inc.com/news_releases/20050908.html">http://www.access-us-inc.com/news_releases/20050908.html</a><br /><br /><i>"September 9, 2005 (Tokyo) &amp; September 8, 2005 (Sunnyvale)— ACCESS Co., Ltd., a global provider of mobile content delivery and Internet access software, and PalmSource, Inc., provider of Palm OS®, a leading operating system powering next generation phones and mobile devices, today announced they have signed a definitive agreement for ACCESS to acquire PalmSource in an all-cash transaction valued at USD $18.50 per share of PalmSource common stock , or approximately USD $324.3 million (approximately ¥35.9 billion). ACCESS’ USD $18.50 per share offer represents an 83% premium for PalmSource stockholders based on the market closing price of USD $10.09 on September 8, 2005."</i><br /><br />Well, if nothing else this will put those ridiculous rumors of Palm reacquiring PalmSource to bed. For those of you that own PalmSource stock, you'll have a nice surprise when you log in to your brokerage account. Stock closed just over $10 last night and is now around $18 in pre-market trading. Not a bad move in 12 hours. :wink:

[lapchinj]

... Stock closed just over $10 last night and is now around $18 in pre-market trading. Not a bad move in 12 hours. :wink:
Seems like the stock is doing better than the OS. But were is all this going now with all the talk of going to Linux?

Jeff-

[Felix Torres]

... Stock closed just over $10 last night and is now around $18 in pre-market trading. Not a bad move in 12 hours. :wink:
Seems like the stock is doing better than the OS. But were is all this going now with all the talk of going to Linux?

Jeff-

Basically it means that PALM OS is going to be "deconstructed" and become a GEOS-like application shell to be run on top of an info-appliance version of LINUX. The OS features (if you can over-generously call them that) will be stripped out and replaced with system calls to the real OS, LINUX.

Think Windows 3x on top of DOS, with LINUX serving as the DOS-part and the PALM apps providing the look-and-feel that hides the OS.

Of course, a lot of other vendors are achieving the same thing by doing JAVA on LINUX and various other LINUX-based application shells so the ACCESS/PALM shell will be just one of many contenders in the LINUX space.

And unlikely to be even the first choice for many hardware vendors unless ACCESS open sources the PALM APPS.

Ah, Open Source, the last refuge of uncompetive software. :devilboy:

[surur]

The fact that a browser maker can buy a whole OS company just to serve as middleware for their product speaks volumes for the weakness of the POS platform. Did you know that Palm's multi-year licensing deal is now automatically cancelled, and that they are now only gaurenteed a further two years of access to POS?

I think some-one in Sunny Vale better start working hard on their migration strategy.

Surur

[Jonathan1]

Ah, Open Source, the last refuge of uncompetive software. :devilboy:

Yet surprisingly, or maybe not so surprising, effective in some cases. *cough*OSX*cough* :wink:

Palm could pull an OS X out of their hat...time will tell.

[Felix Torres]

Yet surprisingly, or maybe not so surprising, effective in some cases. *cough*OSX*cough* :wink:

Palm could pull an OS X out of their hat...time will tell.

So you're saying OS/X was an uncompetitive before going to Open Source?
I'm not, btw.
(My understanding is that OSX/Darwin forked off the existing and once healthy Open BSD effort. Don't hear much about it these days, alas.)

I was referring to end-of-life-cycle products like Informix, Star Office, etc...

When you see a commercial product dumped into the Open Source arena, oftentimes its because the alternative was Chapter 7 or 13. Sometimes a miracle happens; more often it just continues the death-spiral into irrelevance...

[Felix Torres]

Did you know that Palm's multi-year licensing deal is now automatically cancelled, and that they are now only gaurenteed a further two years of access to POS?
Surur

Wow!
The current P-source CEO did real good by his stockholders, then.

First he got a nice chunk out of P1 for the license, then he got a good chunk for the Palm name, and then he sold the carcass for almost double the going rate.

Only way he could've done better would've been to retain the rigights to sue MS for a chunk of their "cheaper to settle than to fight the whiners" fund. ;-)

[whydidnt]

This is certainly a surprise - but, I have yet to hear what Access' strategy is with this purchase, and that will really impact what happens in the PDA market.

Do they plan on furthering development of POS? Do they just want the GUI to package with their browser on "smart phones". It seems like an odd match to me, but who knows? It would be interesting to hear Palm, Inc's take on the acquistion, but they have already admitted they can be OS agnostic, so maybe they don't care (If I was them I would - what % of recent sales were made solely to Palm Loyalists? - A LOT!!) If POS is no more, they no longer have the golden goose to rely on.

Lot's of questions, not many answers right now.

[PPCRules]

Only way he could've done better would've been to retain the rigights to sue MS for a chunk of their "cheaper to settle than to fight the whiners" fund. ;-)
... I have yet to hear what Access' strategy is with this purchase, ...
That might be it. The Access lawyers are buying this to do a Corel/DR-DOS-type move against Microsoft. Figure they can get their money back and then some real quick.

[PPCRules]

This will either greatly increase or greatly decrease the chances of a WM5 Treo.

If Palm has to be nice to Access, to obtain future favors, WM could be shelved quickly and never see the light of day. If Palm wants to tweak Access, such as to drive a better deal for the future, they'll announce the WM version tomorrow.

Palm Inc has today stated how good a development partner Access is, and how they look forward to working together.

[Ed Hansberry]

This will either greatly increase or greatly decrease the chances of a WM5 Treo.
That is quite a limb you are going out on there PPCRules! :wink:

[Jonathan1]

Yet surprisingly, or maybe not so surprising, effective in some cases. *cough*OSX*cough* :wink:

Palm could pull an OS X out of their hat...time will tell.

So you're saying OS/X was an uncompetitive before going to Open Source?
I'm not, btw.
(My understanding is that OSX/Darwin forked off the existing and once healthy Open BSD effort. Don't hear much about it these days, alas.)

I was referring to end-of-life-cycle products like Informix, Star Office, etc...

When you see a commercial product dumped into the Open Source arena, oftentimes its because the alternative was Chapter 7 or 13. Sometimes a miracle happens; more often it just continues the death-spiral into irrelevance...

No I'm saying OS9 was uncompetitive before going to BSD in OS 10. Not 9x vs. OS 9 but NT vs OS 9. OS X, IMHO, was the reinvigoration
of the Mac OS. Without BSD and a number of opensource tech that Apple picked up I don't think Apple would be in nearly as good of a position as they are. Good being relative of course.

[lapchinj]

This will either greatly increase or greatly decrease the chances of a WM5 Treo...
Ahhhh! a WM5 Treo would be just dandy.

Jeff-

[JonnoB]

what does this mean for Netfront on PPC?