Qualcomm Buys Palm Patents From Hewlett-Packard

Cellphone-chip maker Qualcomm Inc. said Thursday it has acquired patents once owned by smartphone maker Palm Inc. from Hewlett-Packard for an undisclosed amount.

Qualcomm says the purchase covers 1,400 U.S. patents and about 1,000 more foreign patients for the company’s mobile-computing technology. Terms of Thursday’s transaction were not disclosed.

Hewlett-Packard Co. paid $1 billion for Palm in 2010 as part of its first foray into tablet computers and smartphones, which ran on Palm’s operating system. The effort flopped, and Hewlett now sells tablets using Android and a recently introduced version of Windows. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company hasn’t re-entered the smartphone market.

The Palm acquisition was one of three major purchases that have haunted HP, including technology-consulting service EDS and business-software maker Autonomy. In November of 2012, Hewlett took an $8.8 billion write-down on the Autonomy acquisition, saying it was the victim of a multibillion-dollar fraud at the hands of the British company. Autonomy’s former CEO said HP’s allegations were false.