On Monday, Palm announced that it had hired former Apple employees Jon Rubinstein (the former head of Apple’s iPod dividsion) as well as former Apple chief financial officer Fred Anderson to serve on the board of directors. Rubinstein will act as the company’s executive chairman while Anderson, whose Elevation Partners firm has just invested US$325 million in the company.
According to MacNN, Rubinstein will lead Palm’s future product development efforts, which should include the Treo line of smartphones as well as devices which are anticipated to emerge from the recently released Foleo phone companion.
During his experience with Apple, Rubinstein was credited as being extremely influential in the design of the iPod and iMac. Rubinstein left Apple in April of 2006 to pursue other opportunities.
As a corporation, Palm has found itself facing greater challenges in recent years with added competition from other players in the smartphone market. Rubinstein’s new position will place his products in direct contention with the long-awaited iPhone, which is set to debut on June 29th.
Elevation Partners is slated to gain a 25% share of Palm in exchange for its investment based on Palm’s common stock value.
On Monday, Palm announced that it had hired former Apple employees Jon Rubinstein (the former head of Apple’s iPod dividsion) as well as former Apple chief financial officer Fred Anderson to serve on the board of directors. Rubinstein will act as the company’s executive chairman while Anderson, whose Elevation Partners firm has just invested US$325 million in the company.
According to MacNN, Rubinstein will lead Palm’s future product development efforts, which should include the Treo line of smartphones as well as devices which are anticipated to emerge from the recently released Foleo phone companion.
During his experience with Apple, Rubinstein was credited as being extremely influential in the design of the iPod and iMac. Rubinstein left Apple in April of 2006 to pursue other opportunities.
As a corporation, Palm has found itself facing greater challenges in recent years with added competition from other players in the smartphone market. Rubinstein’s new position will place his products in direct contention with the long-awaited iPhone, which is set to debut on June 29th.
Elevation Partners is slated to gain a 25% share of Palm in exchange for its investment based on Palm’s common stock value.