NEW YORK-Good news arrived last week for Handspring Inc., a Palm Inc. competitor that went public with a 10-million-share offering, which priced at $20 June 20 and began trading June 21 at $27.
The initial public offering, lead managed by Credit Suisse First Boston, had been registered for sale initially in the range of $19-$22. Then, Handspring scaled back to an expected range of $17-$19 before pricing the deal at $20.
Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinsky established Handspring in 1998 after leaving Palm when 3Com Corp. acquired it, reputedly in a dispute over 3Com’s unwillingness to spin off Palm. Ironically, Palm went public in March of this year. Amid volatility in technology stocks generally, Palm’s stock has dipped below its $38 IPO price for much of the intervening time. On June 20, Palm’s stock closed at $95.62.
Handspring’s Visor handheld organizer is less expensive than Palm’s low-end model and accommodates add-ons like a modem or extra memory. Handspring licenses Palm’s operating system.
