For The 4th, Some Palm Staffers Are Granted…Independence (Updated)

In connection with completion of the Palm acquisition by Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), some Palm staffers this week were handed their walking papers.

One now-former Palm staffer who got the ax this week tells me that while there were “many others” cut, but that the company would not say exactly how many people lost their jobs as a result of the deal. “Pretty ironic for a company that said it was going to double-down on WebOS,” my contact writes.

Here’s my source’s description of what happened:

We were given our exit envelope Tuesday morning.� Our badges stopped working and we were removed from the computer network at 2:00pm that day.

On Thursday, June 17th, those at the working level who were going to be kept, were given “welcome to HP” letters.� On Friday June 18th, those of us who were subsequently let go, were given a succinct letter that stated in part “the company is determining whether there is an appropriate role for you once the acquisition with HP is completed.� Our expectation is that a final decision will be made and communicated to you the week of June 21st.”� We were however told nothing about our status during the week of June 21st, nor Monday June 28th.� Adding to this, during the week of June 21st, at a WebOS team meeting, attendees were told that there were 33 current open positions and that the plan was to grow the team by over 100 during the next year.

I’ve made inquiries with PR staff at Palm and HP; if/when they supply some answers, I’ll update.

Meanwhile, if anyone else has been affected by the cuts, please chime in below.

Update: Here’s a comment from a spokesman for HP: “Part of the integration strategy is consolidation of functions and operations, as appropriate. There always is turnover in organizations. Palm employees overall are enthusiastic about having the financial stability and global scale necessary to complete their vision.”