Palm gives its stock a shot in the arm
Unless you've been living under a rock, you're probably aware of the excitement surrounding the Palm Pre. And that that quickly turned the long-awaited carrier-supported versions of the Treo Pro into a red-headed stepchild. (The same sort of thing happened when the Treo Pro was announced not long after the Treo 800w first became available, much to the chagrin of a number of 800w owners.)
Of course, all that affects the bottom line.
Last week, Palm announced that its revenue for the third quarter would be $85 million to $90 million. Wall Street had been expecting $150 million for the quarter.
Today, Palm has put 18.5 million shares of its stock back on the market, giving it at least $49 million more in cash and increasing its stock price a bit. Palm's main investor, Elevation Partners, likely will use a chunk of that money to buy back that stock at the higher price, thus making all the investors a little happier and keeping the company afloat (or as Dieter notes over at PreCentral.net, on the metaphorical ropes), at least for now.
So what's it all mean? Basically, the future of Palm (at least for now) appears to be solidly resting on the Palm Pre. And that directly affects Windows Mobile, which we're still expecting to be supported on the Treo line. So let's keep our fingers crossed for our WebOS cousins, shall we?
Electronista and Information Week
