Palm targets high end with $264m deal

Palm is targeting high-end business users with a multimillion dollar acquisition and reorganisation strategy in which it will support rival operating systems such as Microsoft's Pocket PC.

It has acquired mobile specialist Extended Systems in a deal worth $264m. The purchase is subject to shareholder approval, but should be finalised by June, said Palm.

The deal will allow Palm to address the growing enterprise market, where it is currently not well represented. It has realigned into three new business groups: enterprise solutions, individual solutions and platform solutions.

"This is a critical step in our wireless and mobile strategy and will provide Palm with a gateway into the office of the chief information officer," said Palm chief executive Carl Yankowski.

"Corporate IT managers tell us they want more 'front door' handheld solution deployment. This means that they want to manage handheld productivity tools more easily within their IT infrastructure, but both platform- and device-neutral," he added.

IT managers want a server-based synchronisation platform which allows them to connect their traditional legacy applications to mobile devices, explained Yankowski.

The acquisition of Extended Systems will allow it to market products and services which increase employee productivity and lower total cost of ownership by centralising systems management, he added.

The acquisition will mean Palm supporting both the pocket PC and Symbian's Epoc operating system, but this is not seen as a problem.

"While predominantly deployed on the Palm platform, many [customers] will have a request for support of Pocket PC and other devices in the future. We want to bring a full range of Palm capabilities to our customers, irrespective of the platform they're using," said Steve Simpson, chief executive of Extended Systems.

Also published in Computing