Palm (PALM) gets beaten like a mule

That is interesting--what were the symptoms of the software corruption? And did taking the battery pack out and putting it back in fix the problem temporarily? Back when my wife and I had Treos we used to do that frequently. But the machines also just completely died on a regular basis.

A lot of people expect Jon Rubinstein and company to magically vault Palm back into a technological lead. But I don't see that as very likely, especially with developers focusing increasingly on Windows Mobile and Android. I can't think of a single company that lost its technological edge and then subsequently regained it. If you were a software developer, which platform would you want to support first: Google's, Microsoft's, or Palm's? Oh, wait--Palm also sells phones that run Windows Mobile, so you can ignore Palm OS and still hit almost all of the market.

In case it isn't clear from my comments above, I am shorting Palm. I was considering covering the shorts, on which I have substantial gains already, but when I think about the company's wonderful combination of arrogance, self-delusion, nostalgia, poor engineering, and over-commitment (two operating systems and the need to continue supporting legacy software applications), this seems too juicy to relinquish just yet.

Like some other people, I mistakenly thought that the company's market cap was lower than its net current assets, making it a classic Graham and Dodd net-net. But apparently the most recent balance sheet numbers do not reflect the special dividend they recently paid. So this is a company that could actually run out of cash.

Some investors are going long on Palm with the theory that it will be acquired. But Rubinstein, Colligan, and Elevation Partners are unlikely to admit defeat in the next year or two.