Palm Swaps CEOs After Pre Launch
After 16 years, Ed Colligan will step down as CEO of Palm, relinquishing control of the company to Jon Rubinstein, who currently serves as Palm's executive chairman.
According to the company, Colligan will take some time off before joining Elevation Partners, the private equity firm that acquired a 25 percent stake in Palm two years ago. Rubinstein will begin his role as chief executive officer on June 12. Before joining Palm in 2005, Rubinstein was the head of Apple's iPod division.
Sunnyvale, Calif-based Palm is hoping the recent release of its new smartphone, the Palm Pre, will help make the company relevant again. After exploding onto the handheld device market the company has been surpassed by the likes of Apple with the iPhone and Research In Motion's BlackBerry.
A spokeswoman for Palm told the Wall Street Journal that the transition is coming at the right time for both the company and the men involved.
"[Colligan has] accomplished what he's set forth to do and now [Rubinstein] is the right person to step up and take the company into the next era," the spokeswoman said.
For Palm, the "next era" may be defined largely by how well the Pre fares in the heated smartphone market and whether or not it marks a change of fortune for the company. Elevating Rubinstein -- who, incidentally, showed off the Palm Pre at the D: All Things Digital conference in May -- may be a result of the time he put in with Apple.
During his Apple tenure, Rubinstein, then the head of hardware engineering, took the lead in the development of the iMac and iBook computers, as well as the iPod, according to the Wall Street Journal. Since joining Palm in 2007, Rubinstein has played a crucial role in the development of the Palm Pre.