WSJ: Palm Shares Down On Report Verizon May Drop Phones

[chris]

I don't see this being true -- not going to run the story on the homepage until there is some sort of concrete evidence.

From tonight's WSJ...



NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Palm Inc. (PALM) shares fell Wednesday afternoon amid chatter Verizon Wireless may drop its Pre Plus and Pixi Plus smartphones, sales of which have disappointed many on Wall Street.
The buzz started after Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek told his firm's salesforce Verizon Wireless was "evaluating the potential for destocking," industry jargon for dropping a product from the store shelves. Misek cited conversations with Verizon Wireless officials.


"We have relationships with certain people at Verizon, and they have been very, very disappointed with Palm sales," he told Dow Jones Newswires.
Palm has already had a rough time. Since January, shares have fallen nearly 43% amid concern that the phones' launch at Verizon Wireless has gotten off to a rocky start. Several analysts have cut their estimates for unit sales in the past few days, citing concern that Palm hasn't been able to win a lot of attention in the wave of competing smartphones in the market.
Palm shares fell 1.3% to $37.87 in the regular session, and are off slightly in after-hours trading.
Palm wasn't immediately available for comment. On Tuesday, spokeswoman Lynn Fox said that the company was pleased with Verizon Wireless's support.


Verizon Wireless, meanwhile, dismissed the claims.
"The Palm devices are an important component in our smartphone line-up," said spokeswoman Brenda Raney.


Verizon Wireless is jointly owned by Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) and Vodafone Group PLC (VOD).


But Misek added that the two-week Chinese New Year furlough for Asian component makers may end up lasting longer as some of them haven't been told to restart production.


Two of the manufacturers that would be affected are Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. (2317.TW) and Compal Communications Inc. (8078.TW), both based in Taiwan. Neither company was available for comment.

[powerwagon]

verizon drops the Pre and that is the end of Palm...if they can't sell phones with Verizon, there is an obvious problem.

[chris]

verizon drops the Pre and that is the end of Palm...if they can't sell phones with Verizon, there is an obvious problem.

If and that's a big if.

[AKITAYO]

Tweeters are saying is just BB that Verizon are dropping out:

http://www.phonedog.com/cell-phone-r...y-devices.aspx