Hasta La Gadget!

After months of speculation regarding the fate of floundering smartphone manufacturer Palm, as well as a number of buyout rumors involving companies such as Lenovo, the company’s fate is finally clear. HP today issued a press release announcing that it has “entered into a definitive agreement under which [it] will purchase Palm.”

According to the terms of the agreement, HP will purchase Palm for $1.2 billion, or $5.70 a share. The deal has been approved by both Palm and HP. There’s not a lot of information being disclosed at the moment, but some will hopefully surface before the deal is closed at the end of June. According to a press release issued by the company, CEO Jon Rubenstein is expected to stay on board.

Said Rubenstein in the release:

We’re thrilled by HP’s vote of confidence in Palm’s technological leadership, which delivered Palm webOS and iconic products such as the Palm Pre. HP’s longstanding culture of innovation, scale and global operating resources make it the perfect partner to rapidly accelerate the growth of webOS. We look forward to working with HP to continue to deliver industry-leading mobile experiences to our customers and business partners

.

Palm has been in rough financial shape for some time, particularly after its Pre and Pixi handsets failed to catch fire in a market dominated by the Apple iPhone and Google Android OSes. Questions have surrounded the future of Palm and whether or not it would license its webOS and get out of the hardware game altogether. From the sound of Rubenstein’s words, it sounds like that may come to pass, under this deal.