While it has looked likely that the saga of a stand-alone Palm is nearing its end, there has been little concrete information or even very good guesses as to who the eventual buyer might be. (Our office prediction pool actually  had Palm acquired but not quite yet.)

Well, it turns out it is HP who a few minutes ago announced they have purchased Palm for roughly USD 1.2 B (including debt), or  USD 5.70 per Palm’s common share (Palm was trading at USD 4.63 earlier in the day).

While HP gets some very nice products and technology and a small but loyal user base, it remains to be seen how well HP can handle the operator game still crucial for success. But now, at least, Palm Pre and WebOS will have a chance with the backing of a much stronger player. HP is  strong both in the enterprise and consumer markets (albeit mainly with printers) so they have a strong position in the non-operator channels.