So Palm, the Silicon Valley maker of the Treo smartphone, has hired Morgan Stanley to evaluate its 'strategic' options, according to the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper's source, probably the investment bank itself, says those options include a sale to a larger company such as Nokia, or an investment of its own. Palm does indeed have more than $500m in cash, but the investigation of possible acquisitions is likely a public relations line: a way for Ed Colligan, a chief exec who would probably lose his job is the company was bought, to save face; and a message to the market that Palm isn't desperate to sell. Make no mistake: it is.

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