Clearing up a Misconception - Palm's Stock Price

I have noticed a couple misleading statements in recent articles about our stock price that I want to clear up. Under the terms of our recapitalization transaction with Elevation Partners, Palm paid a cash distribution to shareholders of $9.00 per share, funded by Elevation's investment of $325 million, new debt and a portion of existing cash. With this cash distribution paid out to Palm's shareholders (as of October 24th, 2007), the Palm stock price naturally decreased by the amount of the cash distribution. If you add back the $9.00 per share to the current price of our common stock, you would see that the current stock price is roughly the same value as it was a year ago ($13.84 as of January 30th, 2007). Articles referencing a significant drop in Palm's stock price without mentioning the $9,00 per share cash distribution are misleading.

Of course we all want to see Palm's stock price increase. We are working hard to transform our company to help drive the value higher, and everyone at Palm is focused on delivering great products. As we do that, we expect that Palm's future success as a company will follow.

-Paul Loeffler

Comments

[Palm Shareholder]

That is nice that Palm stock hasn't taken as big a hit as some perceive. However, the key point is that it should be higher, not flat. Get it togther guys so everyone makes out well.

[Ryan Marris]

The key question is "where will Palm's stock be on Jan 30th, 2009?" Any takers on whether or not it hits double digits?

[Emanuel Campos]

And now everybody can see how important is to a company to have a blog - thanks for the inform. I do many many articles in Brazil complain Palm position, but I do love Palm, and it is no secret for nobody, my only intention is to aware Palm about my thoughts.

By the way, have you every considered do a PalmDesktop to sinc with WindowsMobile devices? In Brazil the HP devices, as RX4240, came without Outlook anymore, just a 90 days trial. It's time to revange, if you are thinking what I thought! Regards;

[Chris Garrison]

It looks like the press release linked to in the post says $8.50 per share was paid out? I'm confused...

[Artis]

@Chris Garrison. Read the Press Release more carefully. "Elevation purchased Series B Convertible Preferred Stock at a conversion price of $8.50 per share"..."In connections with this Recapitalization transaction, Palm distributed $9.00 per share to its common shareholders."

These are two different things.

[Kent Morwath]

Thereby Palm made new debts not to relaunch the company, but to give some cash to shareholder. Funny - I always thought that shareholders take a risk buying shares - and they get money when a company *makes* money, not when it makes debts.
But I am an old fashioned guy, I can't undersand the new financial tools like subprimes or guys losing 5 billion euros playing with derivates...
Ah, probably getting out some device people will but would help shareholder to get money without debts...

[rickw]

I think that the problem here is why did you use the money to do a payout, when you knew that it would drive down the price to $5.00? Tinkering to $1 will get you delisted. Was that the plan all along? To go private?

[ALZ]

Palm, intead of talking about stocks, why don´t you see how apple is selling millions of iPhone?

Can´t you understand that there is a huge market for pure touchscreen devices?

We need a TX with cellphone!!!!

[CES]

Palm, your stock could be much much higher if you developed what people are waiting for so long. Since 2003 I am waiting for a Treo with a big screen. I know that Centro is selling a lot but think about a Treo with a big screen and without keyboard. It is impossible to watch movies and read pdf documents with figures in such a small screen. I have a TX that has completed 2 years old and I would enjoy a lot having a Treo with the TX formfactor to upgrade my old and good TX.

[RobAnd]

Palm, I know that this question is out of the current topic but could you please increase the power of Infrared Port on you smartphones?

I am a long time user of Noviiremote Universal remote control and I am not upgrading to a Treo just because the range of the infrared is to low on treos. My TX infrared range is up to 30feets while all Treos maximum ranges are close to only 10feets.

[michael will]

I was using an iphone for a week and returned it because: 1. no real keyboard - the touchscreen is no replacement for a real keyboard such as my treo 680 has 2. no cut and paste 3. trusted computing nightmare - it is almost impossible to access your own data because apple wants to control it completely... details on how bad it is are on mrmichaelwill.wordpress.com 4. no sd slot or other means to expand storage - because of 3. 5. import/export of images and music requires connecting usb cable and using windows xp or macosx itunes application and you will only do that from one computer, because of 3. if you lose that computer due to a crash any replacement machine with a new itunes app will refuse to access your iphone unless you allow it to erase all your music and photos first. 6. no access for linux users. unlike the ipods where you can use gtkpod or banshee, the iphone has some additiinal trusted computing encryption that prevents you from accessing your data. 7. safari webbrowser does no good caching and renders too late - what I get to read in 20 seconds on my palm sometimes takes 1minute or more to show up on the iphone I returned my iphone, they waved the 10% restocking fee and at&t canceled my contract without ETF because it was within 30 days. I then bought a brandnew treo 680 for $150 after rebate and reactivated my at&t plan. using goodlink for email and calendar - life is good again..