Palm has agreed to pay HP (NYSE: HPQ) $33 million if it terminates the $1.2 billion merger between the two companies, but the likelihood of Palm finding a better suitor or a more intriguing deal is highly improbable at this point.
According to documents filed with the SEC, Palm conducted an exhaustive search for the right partner. Out of 16 companies it reached out to, the list was narrowed down to five serious candidates that showed varying levels of interest in Palm (NSDQ: PALM). Almost all made a serious offer, some for cash and offers to purchase intellectual property or rights to its webOS operating system.
On April 13, HP made its first offer to acquire the company for $4.75 a share in cash, or roughly $1 billion. A competing offer by an unnamed company totaled $5.50 a share, which ultimately led to HP increasing its offer to the final price of $5.70 a share.
None of the other five suitors were named in the document, however, the back-and-forth negotiations make sense because at the peak of speculation, HTC, Dell, HP, Intel (NSDQ: INTC), Lenovo and Nokia (NYSE: NOK) were all named as potential acquirers. Whether the companies that made bids — reaching into the hundreds of millions of dollars — are still serious and would look at other buy-out targets, it’s unknown.

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