Palm has been eyed up by a number of predators - rumours that it's going to be acquired by HTC and others have abounded lately and they're not about to stop.

The persuasive evidence that such an acquisition might happen is that its last two phones have more or less flopped. Nice technology they might be but if the market says a firm 'no thanks' they're not going to help.

The company says it believes it can stay independent, though, through licensing its WebOS.

Say what?

The mobile market is huge and still growing. Once upon a time it's true it was dominated by Palm's OS but that's a while ago and not the same system. Nowadays if you're not on Apple iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Mobile or Symbian, you're looking remarkably unlike a Smartphone.

Unless you happen to be Palm, which has been making its proprietary phones for a while now. And the last couple flopped. If you were a manufacturer, would you want to license that technology or one of the others?

Exactly - one of the others, definitely. This is why I'm concerned about Palm's prospects of finding not only licensees but also a buyer. I could be missing something but I'm not convinced there's much of an asset to buy.