Press Room
Palm Completes Acquisition of Be Incorporated; Assets and Engineering Talent to Augment Palm OS Business Capability
SANTA CLARA and MENLO PARK, Calif., Nov. 13, 2001 -- Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq: PALM), the leading provider of operating systems for use in handheld computers and the leading provider of handhelds, and Be Incorporated (Nasdaq: BEOS) today announced the completion of Palm's acquisition of substantially all of the intellectual property and other technology assets of Be Incorporated for US$11 million in Palm stock. In conjunction with the completion of the acquisition, Palm also has hired several key members of Be's engineering team. The deal was approved by Be stockholders yesterday.
The acquisition -- related to Palm's strategy to separate the Palm OS(R) platform business from the Solutions Group -- will augment the platform's business capability in user-centric communications, Internet and multimedia technologies. Market-research firm IDC estimates that the Palm OS will be used in 59.5 percent of the personal companions shipped worldwide by the end of 2001.
About Palm, Inc.
Palm, Inc. is a pioneer in the field of mobile and wireless
Internet solutions and a leading provider of handheld computers,
according to IDC (December 2000). Based on the Palm OS®
platform, Palm's handheld solutions allow people to carry
and access their most critical information with them wherever
they go. Palm(TM) handhelds address the needs of individuals,
enterprises and educational institutions through thousands
of application solutions.
The Palm OS platform is also the foundation for products from Palm's licensees and strategic partners, such as Franklin Covey, HandEra (formerly TRG), Handspring, IBM, Kyocera, Sony, and Symbol Technologies. Platform licensees also include Acer, Garmin, Nokia and Samsung. The Palm Economy is a growing global community of industry-leading licensees, world-class OEM customers, and more than 160,000 innovative developers and solution providers that have registered to develop solutions based on the Palm OS platform. Palm went public on March 2, 2000. Its stock is traded on the Nasdaq national market under the symbol PALM. More information is available at www.palm.com
Palm OS is a registered trademark, and Palm is a trademark of Palm, Inc. or its subsidiaries.
