The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Dell CEO Michael Dell told a source that he expects to acquire a "significant-sized company" soon. Other evidence indicates that Dell is lining up its financial ducks for such an acquisition. The company is sitting on about $10 billion in cash, and Dell recently sold $1 billion in bonds.

Businessweek that Dell's acquisition targets could include BMC Inc., EMC Corp., Affiliated Computer Services Inc. (ACS), Symantec Corp., Motorola Inc. and -- you guessed, it -- Palm. Of all these companies, Palm is the cheapest to buy, with a market value of just $1.7 billion (the actual price would be higher).

Meanwhile, Palm is never going to get a better price than right now, while the company is enjoying warm-and-fuzzy press and on Wall Street in the wake of its Pre launch.

Either the merger won't happen, in which case both companies will continue slouching toward has-been status, or Dell buys Palm. In that case, the newly reconstituted company can rise to a position of dominance and leadership and bring sorely needed competition and innovation to the mobile space once again.