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NEWS ACQUISITIONS, MERGERS & AGREEMENTS Palm Acquires Extended Systems Palm, Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif. has acquired mobile solutions provider Extended Systems Incorporated, in a strategic move to go beyond its traditional individual consumer base to serving the enterprise. Palm said that it will pay $22 per share of Extended stock, with the full transaction valued at about $264-million.Extended Systems’ mobile information management solutions and product line, including data synchronization and management software, Bluetooth connectivity products and client/server database management, along with a strong engineering staff and enterprise market will provide Palm with the key assets it needs to offer CIOs end-to-end mobile solutions. With the acquisition of the Idaho-based company, Palm will be in the position to provide both handheld computers, enterprise-class mobile infrastructure software, and support for multiple operating systems, including Palm OS, PocketPC, WindowsCE, EPOC, and RIM. This comprehensive, behind-the-firewall solution supports groupware and business applications, the company said. Furthermore, the acquisition will benefit the handheld company’s newly formed Palm Enterprise Solutions Group, one of three groups formed to ‘sharpen customer focus.’ Dedicated to Palm’s enterprise solutions, the group will incorporate most of Extended Systems’ employees as well as Palm’s current Enterprise Market Segment. For more information: http://www.prnewswire.com/micro/PALMMobileinfo Comments and Advisory: Palm is a very successful player with its Palm Pilot devices and PalmOS platform offering. They have won the heart of consumers and professionals. Now they are trying hard to get into the corporate America and Corporate World. Their strategy, so far, has been to get thousands of developers and third parties like Aether to write applications for the consumer and the enterprise. Now with the acquisition of Extended Systems, they are trying to build in-house software engineering strength. This was a very good first move because we were impressed with Extended Systems (see our recent interview with Extended Systems where we predicted this acquisition). But it will take more than Extended Systems to build a serious mobile enterprise player. Their dependence on PalmOS and Palm Pilot devices will come in their way. Note: This news release may contain forward-looking statements. Readers should take appropriate caution in developing plans utilizing these products, services and technology architectures. All trademarks used in this summary are the property of their respective owners. NEWS
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