惠普(Hewlett-Packard)周四宣布，将以12亿美元购买身陷困境的智能手机生产商Palm。投资者对Palm这个个人科技品牌能否继续生存的日渐加深的疑虑得以终结。
这项并购使得惠普立刻跻身迅速增长的智能手机行业，得以与包括苹果(Apple)、谷歌(Google)和微软(Microsoft)在内的五六家科技巨头同场竞技。以收入计算，惠普是全球最大的科技公司。
惠普表示，它将为每股Palm股票支付5.7美元现金，这个价格比Palm周四收市价高出23%。
Palm股价六个月前达到峰值，但此后已经下跌四分之三。这家位于硅谷的公司一直苦于无法提振销售，因此无法令华尔街相信它能继续作为一个独立公司存在。
惠普首席战略技术官谢恩•罗比森(Shane Robison)表示，惠普此笔交易主要是意在获得Palm的Web OS操作系统。这个操作系统自去年早期发布以来，在科技界颇受好评。惠普高管还暗示，在未来可能会将该软件应用于制造体积更大的平板电脑，挑战苹果的iPad。
全球最大的科技企业目前都试图在蓬勃发展的智能手机和平板电脑中寻找机遇，而最新的这项交易将改变目前的竞争格局。作为全球最大的个人电脑生产商，惠普一直是微软的亲密盟友，但现在，二者将会在软件领域展开直接竞争。
“这可能会惹恼微软，”Gartner公司分析师肯•杜兰利(Ken Dulaney)说。他对惠普将尝试多种不同操作系统的决定也表示了质疑。他说：“在两条战线上他们都有很多事要做。”
惠普罗比森表示，这项收购能给惠普带来Palm的技术和开发人员，能让惠普可以立刻在智能手机领域大展拳脚。
尽管惠普曾是智能手机前身——掌上电脑领域的领跑者，但此后，在苹果和谷歌先后给这个产业带来深刻变革、制造出新一代的基于触摸屏的产品之时，惠普却落在了后面。
罗比森表示，对于惠普而言，Palm的价值还体现在该公司1千多项专利上，它们将帮助惠普分得一块市场。
Palm周三称，该公司智能手机销量和现金储备都急剧下降，使得寻找买家变得更为紧迫。该公司预计本季度收入将只能达到9000万至1亿美元，大大低于华尔街上月还在预测的3亿美元。Palm还表示，到5月底，现金储备将从三个月前的5.92亿美元降至3.5亿至4亿美元之间。一些分析师曾就此预测，该公司可能到年底之前就会出现现金断流。
http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001032419
Hewlett-Packard has stepped in to buy the troubled smartphone maker Palm, announcing a $1.2bn deal on Thursday that brings to an end the growing doubts over the future of the personal technology brand.
The deal will catapult HP, the world’s largest tech company in terms of revenue, into the middle of the rapidly growing smartphone business in direct competition with a handful of other tech giants, including Apple, Google and Microsoft.
HP said it would pay $5.70 a share in cash for the company, representing a 23 per cent premium over its closing stock price on Thursday.
Palm’s shares have fallen by three-quarters from their peak six months ago as the Silicon Valley-based company has failed to drum-up the sales it needed to convince Wall Street that it could remain an independent company.
Shane Robison, chief strategy and technology officer at HP, said the company was making the purchase mainly to get its hands on Palm’s Web OS operating system, which has won plaudits in the tech world since its launch early last year. HP executives also hinted that they would use the software in future for larger “tablet” computers to rival Apple’s iPad.
The purchase brings a new twist in the shifting rivalries between some of the world’s biggest tech companies as they jostle for position in the booming market for smartphones and tablets. As the world’s biggest PC maker HP has been a close ally of Microsoft, but will now find itself a direct competitor in software.
“This will probably anger Microsoft,” said Ken Dulaney, an analyst at Gartner. He also questioned HP’s decision to spread its efforts across different operating systems, adding: “They’ve got a lot of work to do on both fronts.”
The purchase is intended to jump-start HP’s smartphone business by bringing both technology and developers from Palm, Mr Robison said.
Although an early leader in the hand-held PCs that preceded smartphones, HP has stood by until now while first Apple and then Google revolutionised the business with a new generation of touch-screen devices.
Palm’s value to HP also lay in its portfolio of more than 1,000 patents, which will make it easier for the company to carve out a place in the market, Mr Robison said.
Palm also revealed on Wednesday that it had suffered a further sharp deterioration in its smartphone sales and cash reserves, adding to its urgency in finding an acquirer. The company said revenues this quarter were likely to reach only $90-100m, compared to the $300m Wall Street had been expecting as recently as last month. It also said its cash would fall to $350-400m by the end of May from $592m three months before, prompting analysts to predict that it could run out of cash before the end of the year.
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