Berkeley CSUA MOTD:Entry 22156
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2001/8/17-19 [Consumer/PDA] UID:22156 Activity:high
8/17    Palm buys Be. Merger of the also rans:
        http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/21080.html
        \_ Um... how is Palm an "also ran"?
           \_ Palm's prices are rising, while the quality
              is dropping. They are trying to improve
              revenue by selling their OS to third parties.
              These are clear signs that the company is
              fast becoming an also ran.
              Let's not forget that platform consolidation
              has started in the small device market; cell
              phones and pages merging is the first step.
              Some of them already feature most of a pda's
              functionality. It won't be long now.
              \_ Yes but Spock has a TriCorder (PDA) and
                 Communicator (Cellphone). Surely this means
                 that PDAs and Cellphones will be separate
                 even in the future.
        \_ Palm is exactly where Netscape was a few years ago.
           Nuff said? Incidentally, IE still crashes as often
           as Netscape for me... -=Aubie
           \_ All who bow before Bill will be rewarded.
              Those who are in the way of the XP Revolution will
              be sent to the Microsquish re-education facilities.
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www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/21080.html -> www.theregister.co.uk/2001/08/16/palm_buys/
Palm buys Be By 40 Tony Smith Published Thursday 16th August 2001 16:03 GMT Updated Be has been sold - as we predicted a week or so back (see 41 Be takeover imminent) - to Palm. The alternative-OS company today admitted its assets and technology have been sold to Palm for $11 million worth of the PDA maker's stock. Once the sale has been made - Be's directors have approved the move, but they'll need the backing of shareholders - Be will be wound up. If shareholders give the sale their support, the deal will be completed during Q4. We'd heard rumours that Palm was Be's suitor, but found little to back it up. It's certainly hard to see at first any real synergy between the two. Be developed multimedia-oriented desktop and Net appliance operating systems, while Palm develops operating systems for organisers. As PDAs become more geared toward wireless Net access, and through 3G networks, able to cope with ever richer media types, Palm will need expertise in handling those kinds of media. Indeed, a modern PDA is as much a Net appliance - arguably more so - than the set-top box image most of us think of when we consider boxes an OS like Be's BeIA might run on. Whatever Palm gets, it's hardly spending big money on the company. Its $11 million gets technology and a staff of around 57 engineers, which isn't a bad price - especially when it's being paid for with stock. Whether Palm will incorporate BeIA into the Palm OS, use it as the basis for a future PDA operating system, branch out into larger-scale appliances, or just cream off the multimedia expertise, the company has yet to say. Whatever it does, the acquisition of Be gives it a lot of scope to develop some interesting business models.