Software VP At Palm Walks Away, Others Kept On With Bonuses

Something is up at Palm. There's no more debate about that. Earlier in the week, there were all sorts of relatively believable reports that Palm was up for sale, with Lenovo and others being named as potential buyers. Of course, Palm has been struggling for years now in an attempt to reinvent itself, so hearing that the company may be purchased wasn't all that shocking. But this adds quite a bit of legitimacy to all of those beliefs, and moreover, it could indicate that something major is about to happen really soon.

According to paperwork filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission here in the U.S., one of Palm's most notable and important senior vice presidents has announced that he will be stepping down on April 23rd. That would be Michael Abbott, SVP of software and services, who will be looking elsewhere for employment starting in the new week. Mr. Abbott was hugely instrumental in the development of WebOS, which is the operating system that currently runs on the Pixi, Pixi Plus, Pre and Pre Plus. It was one of the first mobile operating systems to fully support multi-tasking, and many say that it beats Apple's iPhone OS in many ways. But obviously, he knows something that we the people do not.



No Senior VP leaves his or her comfortable corner office without a really good reason. It's hard to find upper-level jobs such as that, and there has to be something going on within for him to just up and leave. Of course, maybe the timing is just coincidental and he's in need of more time to spend with his family, but given all the other rumors surrounding Palm, we're beginning to feel like the fire can't be far from the smoke. Another interesting point is that Palm has had to dole out packages worth around $250000 to other high-ranking officials in the company in order to keep them onboard, signaling that more individuals than just Abbott may have wanted out. Palm may be close to a deal, thus trying to keep those individuals on so that the purchasing company has a firm foundation from which to build on.

There's really no accurate way to tell what the state of Palm is right now. We're guessing the company is in flux, and we're guessing that someone may be just about to buy them. We suspect the answers to the nagging questions will be coming sooner rather than later, but Palm as we know it may not exist by the end of the month. That's a weird concept to wrap your head around.