Palmy days

The man who experiences poverty once will pinch pennies for a lifetime. That may explain why Palm’s management is behaving the way it is. Having burned through $100m of cash a quarter, three years ago, the cell-phone and PDA maker is now hoarding money. It has got about eight times its expected quarterly earnings on its balance sheet. While this has done nothing to prop up its share price – which has fallen 11% this year – it has attracted several hedge funds who want the company to buy back sto...