WhereIsAtlas · Technology

Palm

The company that made the handheld computer mainstream — bought by HP in 2010, shut down in 2011, with its webOS software ending up in LG televisions and its name licensed onto a very small phone

Defunct — Palm, Inc. no longer exists. The company was founded in 1992 as Palm Computing, bought by U.S. Robotics in 1995, absorbed into 3Com in 1997, spun off as a public company in 2000, merged with Handspring in 2003 and bought by Hewlett-Packard in 2010 for $1.2 billion. HP announced in August 2011 that it would stop making and supporting Palm and webOS devices, which ended the brand after 19 years. HP sold the webOS software to LG Electronics in 2013, where it became the platform for LG smart televisions and is still shipped under LG today, and sold the Palm trademark in 2014 to a shelf company tied to TCL Corporation. The Palm name is still used on a small licensed Android phone sold through palm.com, but the company that made the Pilot, the Treo and the Pre is gone.

Palm Computing was founded in January 1992 by Jeff Hawkins, who had been vice-president of Grid Systems and had designed that company's pen computers. Hawkins brought in Donna Dubinsky and Ed Colligan, and the three are often named together as the people behind the PalmPilot. The company's first job was software for the Zoomer, a consumer PDA built by Casio for Tandy and also distributed by GRiD, running the PEN/GEOS operating system from Geoworks. The Zoomer failed commercially, and Palm kept itself alive selling synchronisation software for Hewlett-Packard devices and Graffiti handwriting recognition for Apple's Newton MessagePad.

The product that made the company was the Pilot. The Pilot 1000 and Pilot 5000 went on sale in March 1996, and the second generation, the PalmPilot Personal and Professional, followed on 10 March 1997. The system's defining feature was Graffiti, a single-stroke alphabet that required users to learn a simplified way of writing letters. The PalmPilot had reportedly sold more than a million units by 1998. Palm was also sued by the Pilot pen company over the name, and later fought a long patent dispute with Xerox over the Unistroke handwriting patents behind Graffiti.

Ownership changed twice before the company ever stood on its own. U.S. Robotics acquired Palm in September 1995 — reported at $44 million in one company history and described in a Chicago Tribune headline of the same week as a $47 million stock deal, a conflict that was never resolved in the sources consulted. In June 1997 U.S. Robotics itself was acquired by 3Com, and Palm became a 3Com subsidiary. The founders, unhappy with the direction, left in June 1998 to found Handspring.

3Com made Palm an independent public company on 1 March 2000. The offering priced 23 million shares at $38 each, valuing the company at about $21 billion, with 3Com retaining the large majority of the stock. On the first day of trading the shares reached $95.06. Within just over a year the shares had lost 90 per cent of their value and were trading at $6.50, making Palm the worst-performing PDA maker on the NASDAQ at the time.

The company then split itself in two. In January 2002 Palm set up a subsidiary to develop and license Palm OS, named PalmSource in February, and PalmSource was spun off. In October 2003 the hardware division merged with Handspring and was renamed palmOne, trading as PLMO. The merger was an all-stock deal in which Handspring shareholders received 0.09 Palm shares each, about 13.9 million shares in total, giving them 32.2 per cent of the new company and valuing the swap at roughly $169 million; it completed on 29 October 2003.

PalmSource was sold to ACCESS in late 2005 for $324 million. Before that, in May 2005, palmOne had bought PalmSource's share of the Palm trademark for $30 million, and in July 2005 it reverted to the name Palm, Inc. In December 2006 Palm paid ACCESS $44 million for an irrevocable licence to the Palm OS Garnet source code, which let it develop hardware and software together again. In June 2007 Elevation Partners bought a 25 per cent stake for $325 million.

The last act was webOS. On 18 December 2008 chief executive Ed Colligan announced that Palm would no longer develop new handheld PDAs. On 8 January 2009 the company announced webOS and the Palm Pre at the Consumer Electronics Show, and released the phone on 6 June 2009, initially only on Sprint in the United States. The hype lifted the stock from about $3 to roughly $18, but the company entered 2009 with only $250 million in cash and short-term investments, and by 2010 the share price had fallen below $4.

On 28 April 2010 Hewlett-Packard announced it would buy Palm at $5.70 a share — $1.2 billion in cash, or about $1.4 billion including warrants, convertible and preferred shares — and the acquisition completed on 1 July 2010.

It lasted barely a year. In August 2011 HP's chief executive Léo Apotheker announced that the company would end production and support of Palm and webOS devices, which marked the end of the Palm brand after 19 years. HP's TouchPad tablet, launched that July, was discontinued within weeks and cleared out in a fire sale.

webOS outlived the hardware. HP open-sourced it, and Open webOS 1.0 was released on 28 September 2012. On 25 February 2013 HP announced it was selling webOS to LG Electronics for use in its smart televisions, where it replaced LG's NetCast platform; the financial terms were not disclosed, though LG also took on the webOS engineering team. HP kept the Palm patents and the App Catalog cloud services, and in January 2014 sold the webOS and Palm patents to Qualcomm.

The Palm name has been licensed since. In October 2014 HP sold the trademark to a shelf company tied to the Chinese electronics firm TCL Corporation. In 2018 a licensed Palm-branded mini Android phone, the PVG100, was released in the United States — the first Palm-branded device on the market since 2010 — developed by a startup called Palm Ventures Group and manufactured by Tinno Mobile for TCL.

The US Robotics side of this story is covered separately in this registry; that entry deals with the modem business, and this one picks up where the Pilot leaves off.

Timeline

  1. 1992 — Palm Computing is founded: Jeff Hawkins starts the company in January to write software for the Zoomer, a PDA built by Casio for Tandy; Donna Dubinsky and Ed Colligan join later. (Los Altos, California)
  2. 1996 — The Pilot: The Pilot 1000 and 5000 go on sale in March with Graffiti handwriting recognition, the base model at $299.
  3. Sep 1995 — U.S. Robotics buys Palm: The modem maker acquires Palm; the price is reported as $44 million by one company history and as a $47 million stock deal in a Chicago Tribune headline of the same week.
  4. Jun 1997 — Into 3Com: U.S. Robotics is acquired by 3Com, and Palm becomes a 3Com subsidiary.
  5. Mar 2000 — The spin-off and the IPO: 3Com makes Palm an independent public company on 1 March 2000; the shares are priced at $38 and reach $95.06 on the first day.
  6. Jun 2001 — The fall: Palm shares have lost 90% of their value in just over a year and trade at $6.50, the worst performance among PDA makers on the NASDAQ.
  7. Jan 2002 — PalmSource: Palm sets up a subsidiary for the Palm OS business, named PalmSource in February, which is later spun off and sold to ACCESS for $324 million.
  8. Oct 2003 — palmOne: The hardware division merges with Handspring in an all-stock deal worth about $169 million and is renamed palmOne.
  9. Jul 2005 — The name comes back: palmOne buys PalmSource's share of the Palm trademark for $30 million and reverts to Palm, Inc.
  10. 8 Jan 2009 — webOS and the Pre: Palm announces webOS and the Palm Pre at CES; the phone goes on sale on 6 June 2009 with Sprint.
  11. 28 Apr 2010 — HP buys Palm: Hewlett-Packard agrees to pay $5.70 a share, or $1.2 billion in cash, and completes the purchase on 1 July 2010.
  12. 18 Aug 2011 — HP ends it: HP says it will stop producing and supporting Palm and webOS devices, ending the Palm brand after 19 years.
  13. 28 Sep 2012 — Open webOS: HP releases Open webOS 1.0, having open-sourced the software a year after killing the hardware.
  14. 25 Feb 2013 — webOS goes to LG: HP sells webOS to LG Electronics for its smart televisions; the price is not disclosed.
  15. Oct 2014 — TCL buys the name: HP sells the Palm trademark to a shelf company tied to TCL Corporation; the webOS and Palm patents go to Qualcomm earlier the same year.
  16. 2018 — A small phone: A licensed Palm-branded mini Android phone, the PVG100, goes on sale in the United States, the first Palm device since 2010.
  17. 2026 — webOS on televisions: LG still ships webOS as its smart television platform, with webOS Hub running on third-party brands, while palm.com still lists a small Palm-branded phone.

Quick facts

Founded
January 1992, as Palm Computing, by Jeff Hawkins
Co-founders
Donna Dubinsky and Ed Colligan
Based
Los Altos, then Sunnyvale, California
Breakthrough
the PalmPilot, on sale from March 1996
Owners before independence
U.S. Robotics from 1995, 3Com from 1997
Independent
1 March 2000, NASDAQ: PALM
IPO
23 million shares at $38; first-day high of $95.06
Software spin-off
PalmSource, spun off in October 2003
Hardware name
palmOne, 2003 to 2005, after merging with Handspring
PalmSource
sold to ACCESS for $324 million in late 2005
Handspring merger
0.09 Palm shares per Handspring share, about $169 million
Last PDA
Palm announced in December 2008 that it would stop developing new handhelds
webOS
announced 8 January 2009 with the Palm Pre, on sale 6 June 2009
HP acquisition
$5.70 a share, $1.2 billion, announced 28 April 2010, completed 1 July 2010
End of the brand
HP ended Palm and webOS device production in August 2011
webOS today
sold to LG Electronics on 25 February 2013; still LG's smart television platform
Patents
webOS and Palm patents sold to Qualcomm in January 2014
Trademark
sold by HP in October 2014 to a shelf company tied to TCL Corporation

Lineage — where the name went

A handheld maker founded in 1992 that changed hands four times, split itself into a hardware and a software company, and left two things behind it — an operating system inside LG televisions and a trademark on a licensed mini phone.

  1. 1992 — Jeff Hawkins founded Palm, Inc. (as Palm Computing, with Dubinsky and Colligan joining later)
  2. Donna Dubinsky served under Palm, Inc. (early executive, later co-founder of Handspring)
  3. Ed Colligan served under Palm, Inc. (executive, later chief executive and Handspring co-founder)
  4. 1992 — Palm, Inc. created Tandy Zoomer (the software contract that preceded the Pilot)
  5. 1996 — Palm, Inc. created PalmPilot (the handheld that defined the PDA)
  6. 1995 — U.S. Robotics acquired Palm, Inc. (the first of several owners)
  7. 1997 — 3Com acquired U.S. Robotics (the merger that made Palm a 3Com subsidiary)
  8. 2000 — 3Com spun off Palm, Inc. (Palm became an independent public company on 1 March 2000)
  9. 1998 — Jeff Hawkins founded Handspring (the founders left Palm to start a rival)
  10. 2003 — Handspring merged into palmOne (the all-stock merger that created palmOne)
  11. 2005 — palmOne rebranded as Palm, Inc. (the company took the Palm name back)
  12. 2002 — Palm, Inc. created PalmSource (the software business, spun off as a separate company)
  13. 2005 — ACCESS acquired PalmSource (bought for $324 million)
  14. 2002 — Palm, Inc. created Treo (the smartphone line that followed the Pilot)
  15. 2009 — Palm, Inc. created webOS (the operating system launched with the Pre)
  16. 2010 — Hewlett-Packard acquired Palm, Inc. ($1.2 billion, completed on 1 July 2010)
  17. 2013 — LG Electronics acquired webOS (bought from HP for LG's smart televisions)
  18. 2014 — TCL Corporation acquired Palm, Inc. (the trademark, sold by HP to a shelf company tied to TCL)

Entities in this tree: Palm, Inc. (company, 1992); Jeff Hawkins (person); Donna Dubinsky (person); Ed Colligan (person); Tandy Zoomer (product); PalmPilot (product, 1996); U.S. Robotics (company); 3Com (company); Handspring (company); palmOne (company); PalmSource (company); ACCESS (company); Treo (product); webOS (product); Hewlett-Packard (company); LG Electronics (company); TCL Corporation (company)

Sources

  1. Palm, Inc. — Wikipedia (2026-09-20)
  2. PalmPilot — Wikipedia (2026-09-20)
  3. Palm (companion) — Wikipedia (2026-09-20)
  4. Handspring, Inc. — Wikipedia (2026-09-20)
  5. webOS — Wikipedia (2026-09-20)
  6. Palm, Inc. company history profile — Reference for Business (The Gale Group) (2026-09-20)
  7. 3Com's Shares Surge in Anticipation of Offering — The New York Times (2026-09-20)
  8. Hewlett-Packard to Buy Palm — The New York Times DealBook (2026-09-20)
  9. Merger to unite siblings Palm, Handspring — Deseret News (2026-09-20)
  10. HP murders webOS tablets, phones — The Register (2026-09-20)
  11. HP offloads Palm WebOS assets to Korea's LG — BBC News (2026-09-20)
  12. HP finally parts with webOS in LG deal — USA TODAY (2026-09-20)
  13. LG Launches Upgraded webOS Hub With Advanced AI Solutions for Third-Party Brands — LG (2026-09-20)
  14. Palm home page — Palm (2026-09-20)

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