Other potential candidates include Dell Inc. and Apple Inc., but Dulaney dismissed the first possibility, saying, "Dell has too many problems now."

Apple might benefit from acquiring Palm, he said. "What they'd get from Palm is carrier knowledge. But they'd have to pick up a whole OS." By that, he said he meant that Apple is getting into the phone business with its much-ballyhooed iPhone, based on Apple's OS X, but some believe that the mobile phone business presents complications that Apple may not have considered. Also, Palm's Windows Mobile Treos would not necessarily be a good addition, given Apple's culture and traditional antipathy to Microsoft's platform.

In any case, Dulaney said that now was a good time for Palm to be looking for a buyer.

"It would be a good thing," he said. "They're profitable and there are some positive things there that won't be positive for all that long."