HP to hold all-hands meeting tonight, fate of webOS likely to be decided
Word has made its made to us through multiple sources that HP plans to hold an all-hands meeting tonight — led by Meg Whitman — on which we'll likely hear what is going to happen with webOS.
Context & Ripple Effects
HP has spent five months signaling it does not know what webOS is for. In June, then-CEO Léo Apotheker floated licensing webOS to other manufacturers, followed days later by reports of active licensing talks — a path that never produced a partner. By October, the company was set to decide the platform's future within the week, and that deadline slipped.
What changed since: HP confirmed it was exiting webOS hardware entirely, killing the TouchPad line while pivoting tablets to Windows with the $699 Slate 2, and offered registered US developers a discounted $150 TouchPad to keep them from walking away. On November 7, Reuters reported HP was weighing an outright sale of the webOS unit, potentially fetching hundreds of millions of dollars — against the $1.2 billion it paid for Palm in 2010. Tonight's all-hands, led by new CEO Meg Whitman, is where multiple sources say the call gets made, though the outcome remains unconfirmed.
First-order effects
- HP's remaining webOS developers learn tonight whether the platform they built on has an owner going forward or is being shopped — the $150 TouchPad retention offer only buys patience until this meeting.
- Whitman must either commit HP to funding webOS as software-only, sell the unit, or license it; each choice lands immediately on the Palm-acquisition team HP paid $1.2 billion for in 2010.
Second-order effects
- A sale at 'hundreds of millions' would crystallize a loss of roughly a billion dollars on the Palm deal, setting the price floor any acquirer — or HP's own board — anchors future negotiations to.
- With webOS hardware dead and the Slate 2 running Windows, HP's tablet strategy leans fully on Microsoft, strengthening Redmond's position as the default alternative for OEMs fleeing their own failed platforms.
Third-order effects
- If HP exits or sells, every major PC maker will have abandoned a proprietary mobile OS inside two years, leaving iOS, Android, and Windows as the only credible tablet operating systems — and making 'build your own platform' a discredited strategy among hardware vendors.
- The gap between what HP paid for Palm and what the software alone might fetch becomes a case study in valuing mobile platforms on distribution rather than technology, shaping how acquirers price future OS purchases.
The trend: Hardware makers are unwinding proprietary mobile-OS bets and consolidating around licensed platforms, with webOS the highest-profile casualty of that retreat.