Well, that was unexpected.  When news first leaked that Palm was looking for a buyer, like everyone else, I figured it’d be one of the obvious companies to buy them up.  You know, either a company that makes or sells smart phones, the types of which Palm made their name developing.  WhatI didn’t expect was a company known for its computers; however, Hewlett-Packard has agreed to buy Palm for $1.2 billion dollars.

It’s still kind of weird, but here’s the reasoning behind it.  HP doesn’t care too much about the smartphone game (though I imagine they won’t pull Palm from that market).  HP cares about moving netbook computers, tablet PCs, and the sort of hybrid device currently embodied by the iPad.   Hence, they wanted Palm’s WebOS to run their lighter devices and didn’t want to have to develop their own.

Given HP’s position as the largest technology company in the world (with $114.6 billion dollars in sales last year) and their current impressive array of corporate-centric business products, they can do some seriously good things with Palm’s software.  Plus, the purchase of Palm gives them an expanded market in the future of computer technology:  the mobile technology industry.

Tags: HP, Palm, HP buys Palm, mergers, technology companies, smart phones, Hewlett-Packard, mergers, mobile computing, netbooks, WebOS

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