HP announced yesterday that it would discontinue operations for webOS devices and also plans to spin off its struggling PC business. Only one year ago HP purchased Palm, Inc. and webOS for $1.2 billion. Now may be the perfect time for Google to come in and snatch up HP, a previous titan in the computing industry. The reasons why are easy to see.
HP has been around since 1939 and in their time they’ve collected thousands of patents relating to computing and information technology. Their purchase of Palm, Inc. bought them more than 1600 patents, putting them at more than 4000 total in mobile technology alone. This would provide more than adequate protection in the now raging patent war against Apple and Microsoft. Palm was the original mobile computer, and even the name Palm became synonymous with handheld computer in the mid nineties. Apple famously threatened to sue Palm in 2009 over the Pre, but conceded that they wouldn’t soon after.
Google’s purchase of Motorola raised questions about whether Google could function as a hardware company. Google quelled these concerns by saying that Motorola would continue to be run as a separate company. If Google were to acquire HP they could roll the two companies together, combining Motorola’s expertise in mobile hardware and HP’s experience in laptop and desktop computing. Chrome OS phone-based laptop docks can’t be far in the future, and Google could use HP and Motorola’s manufacturing infrastructure to quickly take the industry by storm.
HP’s webOS has always been heralded for its great design, which can’t be denied. Android has taken flack for not always being the “prettiest” OS, although this has been improved greatly in recent versions. Purchasing the designers and concepts that made webOS attractive could increase the perception of Android as a beautiful OS.
While Google doesn’t need HP to win the patent wars, run Motorola, or perfect Android, in many ways it surely would help them to achieve these goals more quickly. Palm’s patents in the mobile field may have scared off Apple once before already, and combined with Motorola’s extensive patent portfolio Android would be unstoppable. I’m not holding my breath, but I’m hoping Google is considering this strategy.
4 Responses
Cal, with all due respect, are you on crack? Per Forbes.com, Motorola Mobility had sales last year of $9.9 billion last year. HP – well they had sales last year of $127 billion. What do you think that does to their actual VALUE of an acquisition cost? Not even Google can buy HP. Let's get real people.
Yeah, Google couldn't buy HP with twice the money they have… they could probably buy webOS and what's left of Palm from them, but never the whole company.
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