SANTA CLARA, California, United States—Palm announced it will create a wholly owned subsidiary for its operating system business, a move marking a more formal separation between the company’s device and operating system (OS) operations.
The company said the new subsidiary, which will separate by the end of this year, will operate independently, while continuing to use Palm’s infrastructure and staff services.
“Creating a separate subsidiary for our platform activities will allow us to bring greater clarity of mission, better serve licensees and, we believe, increase shareholder value longer term,” said Carl Yankowski, the company’s chief executive officer.
The move helps to alleviate an interesting conflict of interests. The company sells its own branded personal digital assistants that run on the Palm OS while at the same time Palm sells its OS to other companies, which in turn compete directly with Palm’s device business.
The move is also a step toward separating the two businesses completely, which Yankowski has hinted at several times in recent months.
Palm to separate device and OS operations
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