I can’t really say this is the biggest surprise to start the week. With less than stellar sales of their webOS Palm Pre/Pixi (and Plus models respectively). Word on the street is that the troubled phone maker is working with Goldman Sachs and Qatalyst Partners to find a potential suitor to buy them out, with HTC and Lenovo supposedly in the running to do so.

Nothing in terms of sale price has been mentioned yet, but with the company having lost much of its valuation in the last two weeks, since their terrible quarterly results (their shares currently sitting at $5.86/share) this could be Palm’s best exit strategy. Palm CEO Jon Rubenstein recently claimed that the company was definitely not for sale, but in these harsh economic conditions, the best offer is one that lets the underdog rest easy. Palm, if they shack up with HTC or Lenovo, could have the financial backing to improve WebOS significantly, and build the hardware that the Pre promised (and largely failed) to be.

We will be going over the main advantages WebOS has over Android and vice versa in the coming days, and will update on the latest on Palm’s acquisition. Or lack thereof.

Damn, rumours.

(via Engadget, via Bloomberg)