INAA, but in many cases you do better to shutter something and write it down than to sell it for a pittance.
Let’s say it’s bleeding money. Keeping the lights on while you find a buyer costs money, and buyers are no fools: If you can’t find two buyers to bid against each other, the one buyer you find has you over a barrel: Every day they delay in negotiations with you costs you money, so you are under tremendous pressure to conclude a deal at their price with their terms.
I have no idea what’s going on with HP, but its not unreasonable to close something quickly if you don’t have a buyer or buyers already lined up to do a deal. I suspect that if HP had received feelers from a possible buyer, they would already have tried to sell Palm. Closing it means that they either don’t have any serious buyers or have already tried to sell and discovered that it’s cheaper to close it and keep the patents.
Let’s say it’s bleeding money. Keeping the lights on while you find a buyer costs money, and buyers are no fools: If you can’t find two buyers to bid against each other, the one buyer you find has you over a barrel: Every day they delay in negotiations with you costs you money, so you are under tremendous pressure to conclude a deal at their price with their terms.
I have no idea what’s going on with HP, but its not unreasonable to close something quickly if you don’t have a buyer or buyers already lined up to do a deal. I suspect that if HP had received feelers from a possible buyer, they would already have tried to sell Palm. Closing it means that they either don’t have any serious buyers or have already tried to sell and discovered that it’s cheaper to close it and keep the patents.