HP is selling webOS, the last vestige of its $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm in 2010. The once promising operating system is going to LG, the giant Korean electronics firm, which means to use it in smart TVs.
According to CNET, which broke the story, LG is getting the webOS source code, licenses from HP, patents from Palm, related documentation, engineering talent and related webOS web sites on undisclosed terms.
LG said it was definitely not using the widgetry in a smartphone. It’s got Android for that.
LG also said webOS will remain open source and supposedly it won’t be forked.
HP is retaining rights to webOS solutions and to webOS cloud technologies, including its apps catalogue and updating service.