Palm considers selling company

Palm, the smartphone and PDA manufacturer, has hired bankers to explore several options, including a sale of the company.

It follows a decline of its smartphone sales, which have suffered badly against rivals like the iPhone and BlackBerry.

Its most recent handset launch was the Palm Pre phone, which became available in the UK on 16 October 2009, exclusively on the O2 network.

It was the first handset to use the new Palm webOS software, which brought mobile applications together on a multi-tasking platform in a way the iPhone did not.

However, sales for the brands have continued to struggle with new competition from the likes of Apple, Microsoft, Google, HTC and Samsung Mobile.

Palm’s shareholders include U2 frontman Bono, who is a major shareholder through his Elevation Partners private equity firm, which has a 30% stake in the telecoms and IT firm.

Rival phone makers Taiwan’s HTC and China’s Lenovo are said to have already made offers for Palm.