palmOne to become Palm, Inc. later this year, & renews Palm OS license

- Gary Thayer, Editor

May 24, 2005 -- (MobileVillage) -- palmOne, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLMO) today announced an agreement with PalmSource, Inc. (NASDAQ: PSRC) for palmOne to acquire full rights to the brand name Palm. The brand had been co-owned by the two companies since the October 2003 spin-off of PalmSource from Palm, Inc.

palmOne will change its company name to Palm, Inc. later this year. A new logo and design treatment will be unveiled later this summer. Mobile-computing products to be launched in the fall are expected to feature the name Palm instead of palmOne.

Over the next 3 1/2 years, palmOne will pay PalmSource $30 million for PalmSource's 55 percent share of the Palm Trademark Holding Company. Over the next four years however, PalmSource will retain rights to use the PalmSource name and certain related Palm trademarks for itself and its licensees. PalmSource will adopt a new brand identity during this period.

The companies also announced today that palmOne has renewed its license of the Palm operating system, so that palmOne can continue to develop and market smartphones and other mobile devices based on the Palm OS through 2009. PalmSource will receive minimum royalty payments of $148.5 million, which includes $65 million for the years 2007 to 2009, subject to meeting certain development milestones.

Yesterday, PalmSource announced the resignation of its CEO David Nagel. Nagel has been CEO since December 2001. He will be temporarily replaced by Patrick McVeigh, who is currently PalmSource's senior vice president for worldwide licensing.

Last Friday, palmOne announced the appointment of Ed Colligan as the company's permanent CEO. Colligan, who was serving in the CEO position on a temporary basis, was a founder of the former Treo smartphone company called Handspring.

Recent Related Stories:

PalmSource announces new developer programs

PalmSource CEO steps down (TechWeb)

palmOne LifeDrive PDA packs 4GB hard drive

palmOne releases Tungsten E2 handheld

Textware's latest software speeds text entry on Palm devices

Handy Solution updates its Palm OS tracking software

Back to MobileVillage News Page