Youve got to give Meg Whitman this: She isnt one to pull punches. The
Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ ) CEO told a room of HP and Palm employees on Tuesday
that she flat-out doesnt know what to do with the webOS operating system the
platform that was the lifeblood of Palms mobile phone business and, at one time,
HPs future in the tablet and smartphone game. A report at The Verge (via Venture
Beat ) quoted Whitman: Its really important to me to make the right decision,
not the fast decision. What might the right decision be? Whitman made the
company-defining decision to keep Hewlett-Packard in the PC business after she
took over as CEO in September. Can she somehow transform the Palm and webOS
business into something profitable rather than a $1.2 billion noose around HPs
neck ? Here are three options for the future of webOS: The Great Patent Sell-Off
HP is known to be considering an everything-must-go fire sale of the webOS
business. Reuters reported Monday that HP, under the advisement of Bank of
America, was looking to sell off the entire operation to whoever was willing to
pay and for significantly cheaper than the $1.2 billion it paid for it last
year. Software company Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL ) was said to be in the running .
However, Whitmans words on Tuesday suggest that a sale likely wouldnt be
immediate. Besides, HP might be better off selling webOS off in bits and pieces
rather than as a package. Competitors Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ), Microsoft (NASDAQ:
MSFT ) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG ) have spent billions snapping up mobile
technology patents from companies like Nortel in the past year. If HP still
plans a full exit from mobile, a patent selloff might be the best way to recover
its losses. Go Budget HP already admitted in August that it was being hasty in
announcing a full departure from the mobile business . The TouchPad tablet, the
flagship device for webOS 3.0, began selling out at retailers once it hit the
liquidation price of $99. Whitman also intimated on Tuesday that while tablets
definitely are back on the table, HP is mulling over whether to re-enter the
mobile phone game since things get more complicated if you add in phones. If
there is any opportunity for HP to make an impact with webOS-based tablets and
phones, it would be to make devices cheaper than nearly any other on the market.
In other words, new $99 TouchPads and maybe even $49 non-contract smartphones
marketed as stripped-down, durable, replaceable business tools. HP simply cant
compete with Apple, Google or even Microsoft if it tries to compete as a mobile
ecosystem based around popular consumer support and app sales. Strength in
Numbers With RIM Another rumored webOS buyer is Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM
). The embattled BlackBerry maker, watching its share of the global smartphone
market shrink by the day, probably doesnt want to spend a large sum on another
bench-warmer brand, though. Its not that RIM wouldnt want webOS technology RIM
was part of the Apple-led consortium that bought up those aforementioned Nortel
patents for $4.5 billion but since the company only has about $3 billion in
cash right now, a full acquisition wouldnt be right. A merger, however, might
strengthen both companies. If RIM and HP decided to merge the BlackBerry and
webOS businesses into a joint venture under the BlackBerry brand, they would
have a markedly stronger base of technology on which to rebuild BlackBerrys
strength in the mobile market. As of this writing, Anthony John Agnello did not
own a position in any of the stocks named here. Follow him on Twitter at
No comments:
Post a Comment