According to Bloomberg information, Palm - creator of the webOS smartphone operating system and the Pre and Pixi smartphones - is ready to sell itself to investors and is seeking bids for the company as early as this week. According to people familiar with the situation, Palm is working working with Goldman Sachs Group and Frank Quattrone's Qatalyst Partners to find a buyer, said the yet anonymous sources. According to Bloomberg's sources, HTC (maker of Windows Mobile and Android smartphones) and Lenovo (which has overtaken IBM's Notebook business before) have looked at Palm and may make offers later this week!

That's definitely an interesting development since Palm's webOS would strength both companies position in the smartphone market. HTC is already using Windows Mobile and Android for its smartphones and has recently started to utilize Brew ME as the third platform for its own feature phones. On the other hand, Lenovo is also using Windows Mobile and Android but is mostly selling its smartphones on the home market in China.

One thing seems to be clear - Palm's asset cant be the hardware and its design (especially HTC is building way better looking devices) but both companies might be especially interested in the Palm brand, the sales channels and Palm's own operating system technology - webOS - making HTC and Lenovo even more independent from Microsoft and Google.

Cheers ~ Arne