Palm: Spare Change for Financial Viability?
Is it too late for Palm? Elevation Partners doesn’t think so. The private equity firm has agreed to make an additional $100 million investment in the foundering smartphone maker, which last week reported an abysmal second quarter and its sixth consecutive loss. "We believe that Palm is in a position to transform the cell phone industry, and we are pleased to have the opportunity to make this additional investment in the company," said Elevation Partners co-founder Roger McNamee. "Palm has an industry-leading team and an exciting, differentiated product roadmap. We are proud to be associated with the company and look forward to great things from Palm in 2009 and beyond."
For Palm (PALM), which has lost two-thirds of its market value this year, the funds will help underwrite the cost of launching its new Nova operating system and the first line of products to run on it. For Elevation, however, which already holds a large stake in the handset maker, it seems more of a good-money-after-bad exercise-though neither Elevation nor Palm would ever admit it.
