Palm Sells Off Sizable Stake
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By Associated Press  Faced with mounting competition in the smart-phone market, Palm Inc. is selling a quarter of its company to a private equity firm to arm itself with new leadership, most notably the former technical guru behind the iPod.
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Smartphone maker Palm Inc. is consulting with investment bankers on its strategic options, including the prospect of selling the company, seeking investment from venture capitalists, or making an acquisition of its own, according to a report in the The Wall Street Journal.
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Harrahâs, the worldâs largest casino company, was near a deal last night to be sold to Apollo Group and Texas Pacific Group.
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Handheld computer and phone maker  Palm Inc.  on Thursday posted a higher quarterly profit  driven by sales of its Treo mobile phones, but issued a revenue  forecast that was below Wall Street estimates and shares fell 8  percent.
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By MAY WONG SAN JOSE, Calif. - Faced with mounting competition in the smart-phone market, Palm Inc. is selling a quarter of its company to a private equity firm to arm itself with new leadership, most notably the former technical guru behind the iPod.
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The Dutch private equity firm will sell the stake in the mobile telephone company to a Dutch investor.
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(InfoWorld) - Palm Inc. has lowered its financial forecast for the current quarter because of delays in bringing its latest Treo smartphone to market. Palm on Monday lowered its revenue forecast for its fiscal 2007 second quarter, which ends Dec. 1, to a range of US$390 million to $395 million from an estimate made Sept. 21 of $430 million to $450 million. It also pared its earnings forecast to a range of $0.10 to $0.11 per share from the earlier estimate of $0.15 to $0.18. Not counting special items, the estimate has been trimmed to $0.15 to $0.16 a share, from an earlier $0.20 to $0.23. Although its line of smartphones is selling well and the new Treo 750v introduced in Europe is popular, Palm hasn't been able to get the Treo 750 introduced in the U.S. as planned, according to the company. "Our Q2 FY07 revenue will be constrained by a delay in certification of a key product. We now expect to start shipping the Treo 750 for the U.S. market early in Q3 FY07," Palm President and Chief Executive Officer Ed Colligan said in a prepared statement. Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) waited until the market closed Monday to announce the news. After closing for the day at $15.37, about three hours later its stock had fallen by $0.64 in after-hours trading.
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Palm laid off about 10 percent of its work force this week to cut expenses, according to a person familiar with the situation.
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Faced with mounting competition in the smart-phone market, Palm Inc. is selling a quarter of its company to a private equity firm to arm itself with new leadership, most notably the former technical guru behind the iPod.
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By Connie Guglielmo  Hewlett-Packard, the world's biggest maker of personal computers, said it would withdraw its shares from the Nasdaq Stock Market to reduce its listing fees.
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(InfoWorld) - Palm's troubles continued on Thursday as the company posted a profit of $15.4 million for the fourth quarter, a 44 percent drop from its $27.2 million mark one year earlier, despite strong sales of its Treo smartphone. The company reported revenue of $401.3 million for the quarter ending June 1, down slightly from the $403.1 million it earned in the same quarter in 2006 and also below Wall Street's forecast of $406.6 million, according to analysts polled by Thomson Financial. The results come just weeks after the company faced rumors it would be acquired by rivals MotorolaÂ orÂ Nokia. Instead, Palm raised $325 million of extra money byÂ selling a 25 percent stake of the company Â to private equity investors. Palm is shifting its product portfolio from PDAs to smartphones, which are far more popular and offer a potential for greater profit margin because of their higher price tags. In the past quarter, Palm drew 86 percent of its revenue from smartphone sales, a huge swing for a company that in 1996 drew its entire revenue from the PalmPilot PDA. Palm's smartphone revenue of $344.2 million for the quarter was up 14 percent from the same quarter in 2006. "Our record Treo sell-through reflects strong fundamentals in the core focus areas of our business," said Palm CEO Ed Colligan. "I'm confident that in fiscal year 2008, more and more standard handset customers will demand the capabilities and ease of use of Palm smartphones, which aligns us well for future growth and profitability." Despite Colligan's optimism,Â Palm's smartphone sales did not help its results. Palm earned a profit of $0.15 per share in the fourth quarter, matching analysts' expectation of $0.15 but coming in far below the $0.25 it made a year earlier. Looking into the future, the company predicted revenue between $355 million and $365 million for the coming quarter, the first period of Palm's fiscal 2008. If the company meets the higher end of goal, it would beat its mark of $355.8 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2007. However, Palm may be distracted by change in its boardroom. As a condition of buying a large share of the company, the investment group Elevation Partners insisted on installing a new chairman, former AppleÂ vice president Jon Rubinstein. Palm also raised questions among investors in May when itÂ launched the Foleo, a miniature laptop Â intended to sell as a "smartphone companion." That product quickly faced criticism that its $599 price was too high and that its 10-inch screen was too large. Also on Thursday, Palm reported revenue of $1.56 billion for the full fiscal year 2007, down 1 percent from the $1.58 billion it earned in 2006. Palm earned profit of $56.4 million for the year, far below its $336.2 million profit in 2006, although the 2006 figure included a one-time tax rebate of $219.5 million.
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Palm Inc.  cut its  second-quarter profit and revenue forecasts on Monday, blaming  a delay in shipping its new Treo 750 smartphone in the United  States.
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Treo smartphone maker Palm Inc.  said on Monday it will sell a 25 percent stake to private equity firm Elevation Partners for $325 million in a deal that brings in a former senior Apple Inc.  executive as chairman.
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Elevated by cash, iPod guru and former Apple CFO Struggling to regain its edge in the smartphone market, Palm has reached an agreement to sell a quarter of the company to a private equity firm and to place a former iPod guru in an executive seat.â¦
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A private-equity firm is to take a 25% stake in ailing mobile device manufacturer Palm.
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UPDATE: Oracle&#39;s (Quote, Chart) dogged pursuit of PeopleSoft (Quote, Chart) was rewarded on Monday as PeopleSoft&#39;s board of directors agreed to sell the company for $10.3 billion.
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The carrier sells its shares at a steep discount to the market price.