Palm’s new chief executive, former Apple executive Jon Rubinstein, has decided to repolish both its products and corporate brands by creating two new executive marketing jobs both reporting directly to him, according to an SEC filing this afternoon.
Named as senior vice president in charge of product marketing was Read the rest of this entry »
Palm is expecting sales for its just-ended fiscal 2009 third quarter to be no more than $90 million, far below the $158 million average analyst forecast, and below the $100 million that was the lowest forecast among the 20 analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.
The news, released after markets closed, sent Palm’s shares down 10 percent to around $6.62, according to Yahoo Finance.
The company blamed Read the rest of this entry »
Palm just filed its 8-K and is discussing earnings on a conference call. Bottom line: Revenue for three months ending Nov. 30 fell from $392.91 million last year to $349.63 million this year. Net income swung from a profit of $12.77 million last year, to a loss of $9.63 million this year.
Read about the carnage here…And here.
We noticed last week in Palm’s earnings release that the company had a one-time gain of $4.4 million from the sale of land. Who knew Palm (ticker:PALM) was in the real estate biz? This made us curious.
And so today, we get the official 10-Q filing from Palm which contains a bit more color on the sale. The land in question is 39 acres located at the corner of North First Street and Highway 237 in San Jose, CA. Palm apparently purchased the land back in 1996 hoping to build a new headquarters. But that was like 10 lifetimes ago in Silicon Valley years.
The company began shopping the land back in 2005, found a buyer in 2006, but just closed the deal in June 2007. Hunter Properties paid $66 million for the property, of which $64.5 million found its way to Palm. We guess the other $1.5 million went to the broker or fees. (Docu-Drama is in the wrong business!). According to a press release from Hunter back in July, the property sold for $1.69 million per acre. Is that a lot?
And now, Hunter plans to build hotels, office space, and retail there. And who can ever have enough of those?
How to put this kindly? Palm (ticker:PALM) has not exactly been setting the world on fire lately.
There was the decision to wax an ill-fated product that was widely ridiculed. And then there is the pending restructuring involving a $325 million investment from Elevation Partners which was recently approved by shareholders.
But why let a few bumps in the road get you down? What this bunch needs is a shot in the arm. And there’s no better tonic for what ails ya’ than a nice pay raise.
On Monday, Palm filed an 8-K disclosing that it had given salary bumps to two executives:
Just think what those raises would have been if the company hadn’t done a pratfall…
Like any good Silicon Valley executive, Palm (ticker:PALM) CEO and president Edward Colligan had a 10b5-1 trading plan, which set up pre-arranged sales of his stock options. But on August 31, Colligan nixed the plan.
Apparently, his broker didn’t get the message. On Tuesday, the broker sold 7,000 shares. Ooops. Then apparently somebody somewhere figure it out. Because next thing you know, the company scrambled to reverse the trade. In an amended Form 4 filed on Tuesday, the company said Colligan’s 7,000 stock options had been reversed.
Now, if it were just that easy to turn around the rest of the company.
Earlier this year, Palm announced a complicated deal where it’s selling part of itself to Elevation Parners for $325 million and restructuring itself and doing a bunch of corporate-y stuff that will make your eyes roll back into head.
But here’s one thing that won’t tax your brain. In a prospectus filed today asking shareholders to approve whatever it is they want to do, Palm outlined some details of the deal. That includes that current stock will be converted into shares into the new company, plus current shareholders will get $9 for each share they own.
The document also disclosed how much stock current insiders own, and at $9 per share, they’re in line for a sweet payday if shareholders approve the deal. As a group, directors and executives hold 6.979 million shares, which a $9 per share would collect $62,817,138.
The top beneficiaries and their potential payday:
*Eric A. Benhamou, chairman: $5,167,368
*Donna L. Dubinsky, CEO of the original Palm: $16,065,522
*Edward T. Colligan, current president and CEO: $10,617,480
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