Palm Surges On Acquisition Rumors, Forthcoming Pixi Release

The share price of smart phone developer Palm rose strongly on rumors that the company may be acquired by Nokia, but that rise could also be in response to the expected release on Sunday of the new Palm Pixi.

Palm's share price surged 8.3 percent on Friday to close at $12.40, well above its $2.90 per share price of a year ago, but not reaching its recent high of $17.07 on October 9.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that there are rumors that Palm might be acquired by another telecommunications firm such as Nokia. However, analysts are unsure of that possibility, as Nokia is in the process of releasing its own new smart phone device, the N900, based on an operating system which competes with that of Palm, The Journal reported.

It would not be the first time Nokia has been rumored to be interested in acquiring Palm, both The Journal and Bloomberg reported.

Another reason for the rise in Palm's share prices could be the planned release this coming Sunday of the Palm Pixi, The Journal reported.

Palm on Friday said via a corporate blog that it will officially release its new Palm Pixi on Sunday.

The Palm Pixi, which will be available via Sprint for $99 after service contract and rebate, features a multi-touch screen which lets users switch between applications using natural gestures, a pull-out keyboard, the Palm webOS platform which provides access to Palm applications and the ability to open multiple apps at once, and a 2-megapixel digital camera with links to social networking applications.

The Pixi is smaller and thinner in size than the Palm Pre, currently the company's flagship smart phone device.

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