Be Inc. sold to Palm Inc. Be Inc. sold to Palm Inc. (August 22, 2001)

Be Inc., a software company in Menlo Park, announced August 16 that it plans to sell most of its technology and property to Palm Inc. for $11 million. Palm Inc., based in Santa Clara and famous for the handheld Palm Pilot computer, said it will hire about 50 Be employees. Be Inc., headquartered at 800 El Camino Real, has been struggling, laying off 28 employees in sales and marketing positions in July. The sale to Palm is expected to close in the fourth calendar quarter of 2001. Founded in 1990, Be created the Be operating system, which handles music, video and pictures.