Palm buys Be (17.08.2001 - 02:10 Uhr)

Handheld computer maker Palm has bought struggling operating system development company Be for $11 million. The transaction will be settled as a share swap by the fourth quarter of 2001. Palm will thus come into possession of all patents and technologies of Be. It is expected that the multimedia capabilities of BeOS or BeIA will gradually be integrated into Palm's own operating system PalmOS.

Be was founded in 1990 by the former Apple manager Jean-Louis Gassee and subsequently developed a highly praised, but not successful operating system, which is particularly convincing because of its multimedia capabilities. For a while, BeOS could also be used on Power Macs, until Apple put a stop to it. The OS was then transferred to the Intel platform, but was never able to establish itself there. Interestingly, Apple itself considered buying Be as the foundation for a new operating system for a long time before deciding to buy Next. The result is known to everyone today: Steve Jobs returned to Apple and initiated the development of Mac OS X. (tr)

Be Inc.