HP Didn't Buy Palm for Smartphones

During the Bank of America Merrill Lynch technology summit on Wednesday, HP CEO Mark Hurd said “we didn’t buy Palm to be in the smartphone business.” So what did HP pay US$1.2 billion to acquire Palm for? Answers (of a sort) in the full quote from ZDNet:

We didn’t buy Palm to be in the smartphone business. And I tell people that, but it doesn’t seem to resonate well. We bought it for the IP. The WebOS is one of the two ground-up pieces of software that is built as a web operating environment…We have tens of millions of HP small form factor web-connected devices…Now imagine that being a web-connected environment where now you can get a common look and feel and a common set of services laid against that environment. That is a very value proposition.

Poor Jon Rubinstein. Guess HP was really serious when it said it was "doubling down on WebOS," we just didn't realize how serious.

Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.