LG Electronics announced it has bought HP's WebOS. The company plans to use the operating system for its next-generation smart TVs, and perhaps other devices. According to LG Electronics President and CTO Skott Ahn, the movewill help LG deliver "an intuitive user experience and Internet services across a range of consumer electronics devices." Details on how much money was involved in the deal weren't disclosed.
The word range is pretty open-ended. Since LG already has a rather successful line of Android devices, though, I don't imagine we'll see the firm resuscitate WebOS phones and tablets any time soon. That is, unless LG's management gets a kick out of totally egregious product cannibalization. But I don't expect they do.
As part of the deal, LG is getting the WebOS source code, documentation, "engineering talent," and "related websites." LG is also taking over the Open WebOS and Enyo open-source projects, and it's receiving "licenses under HP's intellectual property (IP) for use with its webOS products, including patents acquired from Palm covering fundamental operating system and user interface technologies now in broad use across the industry." HP, meanwhile, will get to keep Palm's "cloud computing assets, including source code, talent, infrastructure and contracts." Oh, and HP will have the fun job of supporting existing Palm users, too.
