The people who founded Palm left to found Handspring, and following the success of the Visor range, the rumours suggested that Handspring might buy Palm -- it wasn't doing very well at the time. Now the Visor range is moribund and the Treo isn't a hot ticket, while the Palm line has been rejuvenated by the Tungsten and Zire ranges, so the tables have turned.
The merged company will continue to be led by Todd Bradley, Palm's president and chief executive officer, and there will be a handheld computing solutions divison run by Ken Wirt. Palm will also form a smartphone solutions division, to be led by Ed Colligan, from Handspring. Device designer Jeff Hawkins will become chief technology officer of the merged company. Handspring shareholders get paid in Palm stock and Donna Dubinsky gets a seat on Palm's board.
Comment: The Reuters summary says: "Like prodigal children returning home, the union of Palm and Handspring will brings Donna Dubinsky and Jeff Hawkins back to Palm." Prodigal means "recklessly extravagant" and "characterized by wasteful expenditure", according to Merriam-Webster. Did Reuters really mean that, do you think? :-)
