No surprises here, but Palm's "strategic recapitalization" effort has officially been closed. Just months after shareholders gave a collective thumbs-up to the idea (hey, who can say no to Bono?), Elevation Partners has indeed "invested $325 million in Palm, which the company will utilize along with existing cash and $400 million of new debt to finance a $9-per share cash distribution." Additionally, a number of new faces have been appointed jobs within the outfit, and the "total number of directors on the board has been increased from eight to nine." Ed Colligan, Palm's president and CEO, proclaimed that this "transaction has laid the groundwork for the firm to recapture its position as the leading innovator and brand of the mobile-computing revolution." Now that's the spirit, Ed.

[Via mocoNews]

In a move that could be described as "totally unsurprising," Palm shareholders have approved the much-discussed partial sale of the company to a private equity firm called Elevation Partners (of which Bono is a member), and also a change in the board of director's makeup. The plan, if you'll recall, is for Mr. MacPhisto and co. to pay $325 million for a 25-percent stake in the company, while Palm itself will pay out a $9 per-share distribution of cash to current shareholders for a reduction in ownership. There will also be a new executive board chair, namely, Johnathan Rubenstein, an Apple alumni who ran the iPod devision from 2004-2006. Fred Anderson (another former Apple officer), and Roger McNamee (a Silicon Valley investor) will also join the board. Our man Ed Colligan said of the switch, "There are a lot of moving parts here, but the goal is to bring in a transformation and change the dynamics of the company," er... okay. Apparently, Palm has hopes that Mr. Rubenstein will help create "innovative products" and "bring them to market quickly." In our dreams guys, in our dreams.

The wires are alight with news that Palm will be announcing a deal to sell a 25% stake to Elevation Partners. The private equity firm where Bono is a founding partner will shell-out $325 million for the privilege of helping Palm reorganize. Jon Rubinstein, Apple's retired head of hardware -- yes, that hardware -- joins Palm as executive chairman to head up product development while Apple's former CFO Fred Anderson -- yes, that Fred Anderson -- joins Palm's board of directors. Palm's current Chairman, Eric Benhamou, and board director D. Scott Mercer would then step down assuming shareholders approve the deal. Sure, it's not the sale that many had hoped for, but at least we can look forward to a new limited edition black and red Foleo which is somethin'.

Update: It's official, see the press release for all the recapitalization gore.

[Via MocoNews]