With Palm apparently realizing, back in early February, that its plunging sales were are indication that the company was in dire straits, it began exploring its options of either licensing its WebOS operating system or selling the company.

About the option of intellectual property transactions, Palm said: “While an intellectual property transaction might improve Palm’s financial condition, such a transaction would …tend to compromise the value of Palm’s intellectual property portfolio, which management and the Board considered to be a core strategic asset.”

Revealing how Hewlett-Packard (HP) ultimately acquired the company, Palm said in a recent statement to its shareholders that during the February 25-April 1 period, it contacted 16 companies, including HP, to strike a possible deal.

Out of these 16 companies, only 5 made offers; though the filing only identifies HP, with the only other bidder to be named being Lenovo.

Once the Palm board decided in early March that the sale of the company was the best option, HP made its first actual offer - $4.75 per share for $1 billion - on April 13; and sought a month of exclusive negotiations.

With some other offers also coming in, HP raised its offer to $5 per share on April 22. HP and Palm entered into negotiations from April 24 to April 28; and the merger was finally announced on April 28.