• Bloomberg, Monday, April 12, 2010 2:53 PM

In a development destined to reshape the entire mobile ecosystem, Palm plans to begin accepting buyout offers, sources tell Bloomberg. The phone maker has reportedly enlisted Goldman Sachs Group and Frank Quattrone's Qatalyst Partners to find a buyer, while rumor has it that Taiwan's HTC Corp. and China's Lenovo Group have already kicked Palm's tires.

Of particular interest to suitors is Palm's WebOS software, which competes against mobile operating systems from Apple's iPhone and Google. According to Bloomberg, the biggest winner could be Elevation Partners LP, which owns about 30% of Palm, the value of which has fluctuated wildly over the past two years. Last month, Palm's Chief Financial Officer Doug Jeffries forecast sales in the quarter ending in May of under $150 million -- compared with the $300 million average of analysts' estimates compiled by Bloomberg at the time.

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