Palm (PALM) Reportedly Taps Goldman to Find Buyer

Shares of Palm (PALM: 6.04, 0.88, 17.05%) continued their 2010 rollercoaster ride on Monday as the phone maker surged 20% in the wake of a report it has tapped Goldman Sachs and Frank Quattrone to find it a buyer as early as this week.

According to Bloomberg News, the beleaguered creator of the Pre smartphone could soon be sold to Taiwan’s HTC Corp, China’s Lenovo Group or another suitor. The report comes after Palm issued bleak revenue guidance amid tumbling sales last month, leading a number of analysts to warn the company would likely have to be sold.

Palm has hired Goldman (GS: 177.84, -1.33, -0.74%) and Quattrone’s Qatalyst Partners to find it a buyer, Bloomberg reported. A deal would give a company access to Palm’s WebOS software and the sixth-largest North American smartphone company, well behind Apple (AAPL: 242.29, 0.5, 0.21%) and Research in Motion (RIMM: 70.54, 0.57, 0.81%), which makes the BlackBerry.

Palm’s shares have hit extremes in recent weeks. The stock plummeted more than 60% year-to-date in the wake of its negative sales guidance, but then rallied 32% last week on takeover speculation. Monday morning Palm was up 17.9% from Friday’s close, to $6.06.

Aside from Lenovo and HTC, a number of other companies have been rumored to be interested in Palm. According to Bloomberg, Dell (DELL: 15.93, 0.1, 0.63%) looked at Palm but ultimately decided against an offer.

Palm is seen as an early pioneer of the smartphone market it now struggles in. The company created the PalmPilot after it was founded in 1992. Its Palm Pre and Pixi phones mostly sell in the U.S on Sprint Nextel (S: 4.209, 0.169, 4.18%), the No. 3 wireless carrier.

Source: http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/technology/palm-reportedly-appoints-goldman-buyer