Palm up for sale; HTC, Lenovo may bid this week

Bloomberg reports that Palm is about to put itself up for sale, with offers coming in as early as this week.  This is a particularly interesting given that less than a week ago, the smartphone maker’s CEO, Jon Rubinstein, strongly defended Palm’s business plan and ability to turn a profit independently in a Fortune interview.  Palm has reportedly hired Goldman Sachs and Qatalyst Partners to handle the sale.  Dell has opted against a bid, but HTC and Lenovo are said to be interested.

HTC would be a particularly intriguing suitor, since Palm owns a deep array of patents that would help HTC neutralize Apple’s patent infringement lawsuit and give it room to operate much more freely without fear of patent suits from competitors.

Of course, HTC would also gain access to a great smartphone operating system in Palm’s WebOS.  Palm OS + HTC hardware?  Hmm…tasty.

Source: Bloomberg