Palm earlier this month reported a $506.8 million loss in its fiscal second quarter because of falling sales and a one-time tax charge. Once a major force in the smartphone market, Palm in recent years has faced increasing competition from BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion and Apple, which has gained ground with the iPhone.
Under the Elevation deal, the firm will receive newly issued Series C stock that can be converted into common stock at a price of $3.25 a share. It also gets warrants to acquire 7 million Palm shares at the same price.
The investment comes as Palm, maker of the Treo and Centro devices, gets set to unveil its new Nova operating system at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.--Mark Walsh