HP ponders offloading webOS

HP is considering selling off its webOS operating system as the company continues to deliberate over the platform's future.

Earlier this year, the company halted production of its webOS phones and tablets, yet this week offered developers cheap slates to develop for the platform.

Now, as part of a tortuous transitional period in which it considered ditching its PC business, HP could be ready to offload the platform, according to the Reuters news agency.

Citing a quartet of sources close to the situation, the agency claimed HP was contemplating a deal that “could fetch hundreds of millions of dollars but likely less than the $1.2 billion the company paid for Palm in 2010”.

Several potential suitors were apparently interested in snapping up the webOS platform, with Oracle the leading party, according to Reuters' sources.

The report comes only weeks after the company announced it would retain its personal systems group, with CEO Meg Whitman breaking her months-long silence on her strategy for the PC brand. Last month she spoke of a continuing focus on a Microsoft-based Windows 8 tablet and a need to be in the tablet business, despite the company having dumped its short-lived TouchPad earlier this year.

An official announcement regarding the future of webOS is not expected until HP's Q4 2011 earnings call on November 21.