HP Considering Sale of WebOS [REPORT]

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WebOS, which HP acquired with Palm in 2010, could fetch hundreds of millions of dollars, sources told Reuters Tuesday.

But HP is still unlikely to recover the $1.2 billion it paid for Palm -- even with the valuable patents that make Palm more attractive to potential buyers such as Amazon, RIM, IBM, Oracle and Intel.

Speculation about a sale of Palm has been rampant since the HP TouchPad went off the market in August. Reports that Amazon was interested in buying Palm and WebOS circulated in September, and Samsung CEO Choi Gee Sung quickly shut down similar reports about Samsung, when he announced that the company will "never" pursue such a deal.

HP CEO Meg Whitman told analysts in a conference call last month that HP will not be leaving the tablet business. But she didn't know at the time whether webOS would be used in a future HP tablet. The company would make that decision, she said, within the next two months.

BONUS: HP's WebOS Devices