Buy Nokia? Maybe Microsoft should buy Palm.

I know, I know. The rumors are flying over Microsoft officially buying Nokia -- for what, $40 or so billion -- even though they have unofficially purchased them for far less.

For Nokia's sake, I hope Microsoft does acquire them. Yes, they vanish into the bowels of Borg Microsoft. I just think that's preferable to a fate where they are fully responsible for sales, for returns, for operating an actual, you know, business, while being fully dependent upon Microsoft for their future, for their very livelihood.

Except, for Microsoft, I think an even better acquisition would be Palm. Well, perhaps not better, but certainly more cost effective. After all, Palm, which apparently God himself has decreed shall wander the smartphone wars desert for years, was acquired by HP for about 1/5 of what Microsoft just paid for Skype.

Since that acquisition, well, essentially nothing has happened. Yes, a few of us have heard of the HP Veer. Still, no one is buying "Palm" devices, HP is doing almost nothing with the Palm webOS. Nor do they appear to know what to do with it. Or, if they do, they do not appear capable of executing on that vision.

Worse, HP is having its own structural problems and the new CEO appears ill-equipped to turn around the company organically. A series of cuts, various sales of 'non-strategic' assets and one or two large 'strategic acquisitions' designed exclusively, let's be honest here, to achieve nothing other than satisfy whatever vaguely worded benchmarks and bonus structures are spelled out in his employment agreement.

Per Bloomberg:

Hewlett-Packard CEO Leo Apotheker told top executives that he’s bracing for “another tough quarter” in the July period and urged deputies to “watch every penny and minimise all hiring.” In a memo obtained by Bloomberg (dated May 4), Apotheker said the company’s existing headcount plans are “unaffordable given the pressures on our business.”

There is something that helps him: sell Palm.

Fact is, a year later and basically nothing has been done with Palm. And new CEO can get what? $1.5 billion? $3 billion? Or better? Hard to pass that deal up.

But why would Microsoft be interested? What value does Palm offer Microsoft? Other than some patents? Some internal expertise? The brand name?

There is one more thing, of course. The biggest thing of all. A promise. A commitment: The eternal life of Windows. More than anything, that is Ballmer's vision, his mission, his reason for going into work every morning despite being *the richest employee* on the planet. Windows everywhere. Which can't happen without HP's capitulation.

Ballmer could be persuaded to pay something silly for Palm, say $5-10 billion. In return for overpaying for Palm, Ballmer secures an agreement that HP (once again) embraces all things Windows across all HP devices?