Palm Computing Inc.
Palm Computing Inc.
Introduction: In the early 1990 the technological boom started, and one of the startups was Palm. They had focused on the handheld devices which where in their baby steps. One of their top executives was a former GRiD employee, which has left the company after his PhD in the medical field. With his knowledge he developed a coding system that enabled the recognition of handwriting. The CEO of Palm was also an insider in the industry, which was seeking for new challenges.
Problem: The Company has made a device in the partnership with Casio what was not a huge success, and after that the company faced a challenge of finding a new partner for the second generation of the device. The biggest problem was to insure the financing of the new product. The CEO of the company did a good job for the first device regarding the financing of the project, but as sales where not as good as expected they had trouble to find capital for the second generation of the device. In the process of finding new partners the company talked to few possible partners for the product and they had different options out of which they had to choose the best possible for the company’s future. One of the options was “Alpha Computers”, they offered about $3 million, what was enough for the closure of the project, but the problem with this offer was that AC had few requests that where not favorable for Palm, they actually protected them self very good. The second option was ABC Venture Capital; they offered $1 million for the beginning, and with the hope that they could find more money during the project life. The last option that came in house was that US Robotics a well-known company in the industry buys Palm for $50 million. They arranged that Palm could be completely independent under USR what was favorable for Palm.
Solution: The top management of the company had a hard job to do in order to get Palm to the top of the market by choosing the best partner for their product
Introduction: In the early 1990 the technological boom started, and one of the startups was Palm. They had focused on the handheld devices which where in their baby steps. One of their top executives was a former GRiD employee, which has left the company after his PhD in the medical field. With his knowledge he developed a coding system that enabled the recognition of handwriting. The CEO of Palm was also an insider in the industry, which was seeking for new challenges.
Problem: The Company has made a device in the partnership with Casio what was not a huge success, and after that the company faced a challenge of finding a new partner for the second generation of the device. The biggest problem was to insure the financing of the new product. The CEO of the company did a good job for the first device regarding the financing of the project, but as sales where not as good as expected they had trouble to find capital for the second generation of the device. In the process of finding new partners the company talked to few possible partners for the product and they had different options out of which they had to choose the best possible for the company’s future. One of the options was “Alpha Computers”, they offered about $3 million, what was enough for the closure of the project, but the problem with this offer was that AC had few requests that where not favorable for Palm, they actually protected them self very good. The second option was ABC Venture Capital; they offered $1 million for the beginning, and with the hope that they could find more money during the project life. The last option that came in house was that US Robotics a well-known company in the industry buys Palm for $50 million. They arranged that Palm could be completely independent under USR what was favorable for Palm.
Solution: The top management of the company had a hard job to do in order to get Palm to the top of the market by choosing the best partner for their product