April 11 (Bloomberg) -- Palm Inc., creator of the Pre smartphone, put itself up for sale and is seeking bids for the company as early as this week, according to three people familiar with the situation.

The company is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Frank Quattrone’s Qatalyst Partners to find a buyer, said the people, who declined to be identified because the sale isn’t public. Taiwan’s HTC Corp. and China’s Lenovo Group Ltd. have looked at the company and may be potential bidders, said the people. Dell Inc. also looked at Palm, though it decided against an offer, according to two of the people.

Palm shares surged 32 percent last week on renewed speculation that the Sunnyvale, California-based company would get a takeover bid. Before the rally, the stock had plunged more than 60 percent this year, dragged down by disappointing sales of the Pre and Pixi phones. Chief Executive Officer Jon Rubinstein, who developed Palm’s latest operating system, was counting on the devices to attract customers and restore its status as an industry pioneer.

Via Bloomberg .

Labels: palm

¶ posted by Jimmie Geddes, Editor @ 4/12/2010 12:11:00 AM