Posted on Friday, April 23 2010 @ 17:56 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
Reuters
reports Lenovo is now the leading candidate to buy Palm, as HTC allegedly decided to pass after reviewing Palm's books.
Shares of Hong Kong-listed Lenovo rose as much as 5.9 percent percent to a 23-month high on Friday, helped by expectations of strong growth in the sector and speculation that it could bid for the U.S. company once considered a pioneer in the smartphone space.
"A most suitable candidate will be a mainland Chinese company," said Lu Chialin, an analyst at Macquarie Securities in Taipei. "They've got a lot more free cash and don't have the brand presence in the United States, so that will all give them that boost they need."
Investment banking sources said they had heard that Lenovo is looking into a possible bid for Palm, but did not have any further details.
