HTC Interest in Palm Off the Table

A Reuters report today confirmed that HTC withdrew its interest in Palm after having a closer look at the struggling company's books, making Lenovo the likely bidder.
The report explained that buying Palm would give Lenovo the North American presence in the mobile market that it needs.
This all comes at a time when Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein insists that the company can manage on their own, saying that Palm is hard at work churning out new phones.
“I believe Palm can survive as an independent company,” Rubinstein told the Financial Times. “We have a plan that gets us to profitability.”
Whether that plan means creating new devices, licensing their webOS or implementing a third, unannounced plan of attack is uncertain. Reuters estimated Lenovo would have to offer the ailing company at least US$ 1.3 billion given the current 30 percent premiums paid on tech companies.
Palm's stock has declined significantly from a September high of US$ 18.09, closing at US$ 4.86 yesterday.