Palm will pay $11 million to buy the remaining assets and intellectual property of operating system maker Be Inc. and hire key staff, the companies said today.

The maker of the BeOS, which never managed to compete with the Macintosh, Windows or Unix operating systems, will take payment in the form of Palm stock.

The announcement was made in a terse statement issued by both companies.

Founded in 1990 by former Apple executive Jean-Louis Gassee, Be went public in late 1999 and saw its stock price reach a high of almost $40 per share.

At the time of the Aug. 16 announcement, Be shares were trading at about 45 cents each. Palm, which produces the Palm OS, is doing slightly better in the stock market and is trading at $4.05 per share, down from a high of almost $70 in late 2000.

The companies said Be directors have approved the deal and are winding down of operations, but the Palm transaction still has to be approved by Be stockholders.

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