A marriage of Nokia, lacking a smartphone hit, to struggling handheld pioneer Palm isn't even a wink of the eye yet, according to Wall Street analysts.
Amid mounting speculation, analyst are pooh-poohing such a combination for many reasons, including Nokia's interest in open-source operating systems, the company's continued facelifts to its aging Symbian operating system, and the potential for a prohibitively high price to pick up Palm, among others.
"Palm may be a consideration," JP Morgan analyst Paul Costner said in an interview. "There’s some that should be (looking at Palm), but I don’t think they are. There’s been a lot of speculation -- it’s just really premature at this point."
JM Morgan's analyst considers Palm could be worth 2.5 times forward sales multiples, based on valuations of related mergers.
Still, Palm's comeback WebOS operating system is a compelling value to anybody interested in the future of the the company, analysts say.
"Handset OEMs and other technology companies might view WebOS as a means to access the mobile computing market," JP Morgan wrote in a note to clients on Monday.