[Techtaffy Newsdesk]
HP has finally figured out what to do with its webOS business. Sell it to LG for undisclosed terms.
LG has entered into a definitive agreement with HP to acquire the source code, associated documentation, engineering talent and related websites associated with webOS.
As part of the transaction, LG also will receive licenses under HP’s intellectual property (IP) for use with its webOS products, including patents acquired from Palm covering fundamental operating system and user interface technologies now in broad use across the industry.
The acquisition is expected to support the company’s next-generation Smart TV technology. HP says it wants to focus its resources on strategic business opportunities such as cloud computing.
Skott Ahn (President and chief technology officer, LG): The open and transparent webOS technology offers a compelling user experience that, when combined with our own technology, will pave the way for future innovations using the latest Web technologies.
With the transaction, LG will add the Sunnyvale and San Francisco sites to its global R&D locations, in addition to its existing U.S. sites in San Jose and Chicago.
Also under the agreement:
- LG will assume stewardship of the open source projects of Open WebOS and Enyo.
- HP will retain ownership of all of Palm’s cloud computing assets, including source code, talent, infrastructure and contracts.
- HP will continue to support Palm users.
For more details on HP made and broke its own strategy on webOS, and a timeline, check out: