According to an article at Unstrung, PDA pioneer Palm Inc. appears to be in play again, with sources saying the likely buyers could be Nokia Corp. or Motorola Inc.
Several sources note that such rumors have made the rounds before, but this time they appear to be more serious. They say that Morgan Stanley has been running the deal and that, in addition to Nokia and Motorola, one or more private equity players may be interested.
Executives from wireless firms and others that Unstrung spoke to at this week's 3GSM show agreed that the company has been rumored to be on the block for a while now.

Info-Tech Research Group analyst Carmi Levy says Motorola and Nokia have emerged as the front-runners to buy Palm, as both could use the company's technology to patch weak spots in their product portfolios. Motorola could "push itself over the top in the smartphone market" by adding Palm's Treo line to its own offerings, according to Levi. Much of Motorola's less-than-stellar fourth-quarter performance stemmed from the Schaumburg, Ill.-based company's handset division.

Nokia, meanwhile, could use the Treo line to give itself a much-needed boost in the North American market, particularly with enterprise customers. This was one of the few blots on the Espoo, Finland-based vendor's fourth-quarter report. The firm simply has not been able to crack the U.S. business market with its E-Series smartphone.

Cheers ~ Arne

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