Hewlett-Packard is looking to unload its webOS business but is reportedly insisting that any buyer offer a cheap licensing arrangement for HP to integrate the operating system in its printing business.
HP acquired webOS in its $1.2 billion deal for Palm in 2010, but scuttled the first webOS-based consumer tablet, the TouchPad, just weeks after launching it earlier this year. The computing giant said in August that it would stop supporting webOS devices, leading to speculation that HP might simply wind down the webOS unit if it couldn't find a buyer.
Now it looks as if HP has some potential suitors—including Intel and Qualcomm, according to Venture Beat. The site reported this week that Intel had just entered negotiations with HP but that Qualcomm "is still in the running" to acquire HP's Palm assets.
But a sticking point could be HP's "strange" desire to integrate webOS with its printers, according to a Venture Beat source who has "knowledge of the negotiations." A big part of the reason HP acquired Palm in the first place was to gain an operating system it could use to tie its many hardware assets together synergistically, but its recent behavior suggested that might no longer be the case.
Venture Beat speculates that HP might have webOS printers near completion, "so by licensing the software it'll still be able to move forward with those products." Whether HP's insistence on a cheap licensing deal for webOS from its buyer holds up a sale would depend on how little HP is hoping to pay.
An HP spokesperson wouldn't comment on Venture Beat's report, but did say that the company "feel[s] that webOS is great software, and we are still exploring options for optimizing the value. We have teams doing the work, and once we make any decisions we will communicate them."
An Intel spokesperson also declined to comment on this article.