Kara Talks to Roger McNamee About the Palm Pre
by Kara Swisher
Posted on January 12, 2009 at 5:22 AM PT
BoomTown did a video interview with Palm’s sugar daddy investor Roger McNamee at the Consumer Electronics Show last week, after the debut of its Pre smartphone.
Via Elevation Partners, McNamee has invested a total of $425 million in Palm, aimed at reviving the company that pioneered the smartphone market.
But Palm soon saw its business gobbled up by the BlackBerry from Research in Motion (RIMM) and the iPhone from Apple (AAPL). And, of course, there is the G1 phone from Google (GOOG) too, along with competition from Nokia (NOK) and many others.
And Palm is following the less-than-stellar last launch of the Foleo in 2007.
Thus, the company and the private equity firm have banked a lot on this revival, so McNamee was out in full force at CES in Las Vegas, talking up the Pre.
The Pre launch was indeed the highlight of the show, and also gave Palm’s moribund stock a boost.
And, indeed, the Pre does look pretty cool, with a sleek design and a new operating system, although the real proof will be when it debuts to consumers later this year.
In any case, here is the always hopped-up McNamee giving it his best for the Pre:
Comments
It is obviously unclear as to whether the Palm Pre will be successful. Nevertheless, it is clear that Roger McNamee and Elevation Partners have a unique (positive) perspective on private equity investing. Putting money and passion behind management/entrepreneurs in public companies, so they have the resources to introduce potentially game changing disruptive products is a niche that is sadly underpopulated.
http://www.cosmicvc.com
Posted by charlie federman at January 13th, 2009 at 1:19 amThis really came out of left field for me—I had no idea Palm was building something that was going to make such a splash. CNet already gave it their gadget of CES award. Granted, I got into the smartphone craze in the post-Palm era, but still, this is exciting because it will push the iPhone and the G1 to make themselves better.
The emphasis on “faster” is also good to hear.
Posted by Carlos Portocarrero at January 13th, 2009 at 7:02 amRoger McNamee and Elevation Partners must have this as a win, given their other money losing investments. I am dubious as to whether or not they will make it.
Posted by alex chu at January 19th, 2009 at 10:14 pmpalm peaked in 2000 when pilot was the ‘iphone’ of its day.
they were slow to innovate and it cost them the company and market opportunity
the new name for the ‘pre’ will be ‘post’ (as in mortum)
Posted by Sam Harrison at January 22nd, 2009 at 12:44 pmTotal Set-Breaker! Or, as you guys and gals call it, “game-changer”.
Posted by Mark Omega at January 28th, 2009 at 1:51 pm