Acer settlement lifts PalmSource to quarterly profit
Shipments of Palm OS-based devices declined compared to last year
Follow @infoworldA November settlement with Taiwan's Acer helped push PalmSource into the black during the second quarter of its fiscal year, even as shipments of Palm OS-based devices declined compared to the same period last year, the Sunnyvale, California, company said Wednesday.
PalmSource, which licenses the Palm OS operating system to hardware makers, reported net income of $2.1 million on revenue of $19.2 million during the second quarter of its 2005 fiscal year, which ended on Nov. 30. The results mark an improvement over the same period last year, when the company reported a loss of $9.1 million on revenue of $16.7 million.
In a statement, PalmSource said a $2.6 million settlement with former licensee Acer had boosted its second-quarter results. That settlement ended a legal battle between the two companies that began earlier this year over terms of a 2001 licensing agreement. The settlement also releases both parties from the licensing agreement.
Without the settlement payment from Acer, PalmSource would not have earned a profit during the second quarter.
PalmSource noted that licensees shipped 1.2 million Palm OS-based devices during its second quarter, compared to shipments of 1.3 million units last year. PalmSource pinned the blame for this decline in shipments primarily on Sony Corp., which earlier this year announced it would stop selling PDAs (personal digital assistants) outside of Japan.
