Buyers Surrounding Ailing Palm

Smartphone manufacturer Palm may be looking for a quick exit as it has reportedly sought the help of Goldman Sachs Group and Qatalyst Partners to identify a potential white knight.

Sources close to the situation have told financial news website Bloomberg that the company behind the award winning Pre smartphone is "actively" looking to sell the company probably as a going concern.

Palm was the one which kickstarted the Personal Digital Assistant revolution back in the days of yore with its Palm Pilot range but in recent times, it has been facing huge competition from the likes of HTC, Apple as it tried to transform itself into a smartphone powerhouse.

The company managed to launch the Pre last year but unsatisfactory sales and the inability of Palm to produce another strike have caused some financial analysts to downgrade Palm's shares to junk status.

The subsequent arrival of the Pixi and largely unexciting "Plus" versions did not help drive up sales as the market was flooded with cheaper and more capable Android smartphones from a slew of handset manfuactuerrs.

Palm has been losing money for a number of consecutive quarters - 11 in a row - and now that it has positioned itself as a potential target, the likes of Lenovo, HTC and Dell may be willing to put some money on the table.