With HP’s announcement today that they are purchasing Palm, the loop is complete:

1992: Palm Computing Founded

1995: Palm Computing acquired by US Robotics

1997: US Robotics acquired by 3Com

1998: Palm Computing founders leave to create Handspring

2000: 3Com spins off Palm, Inc.

2002: Palm spins off PalmOS to PalmSource

2003: Palm merges with HandSpring to create PalmOne

2005: PalmOne acquires full rights to Palm trademark and renames back to Palm; PalmSource acquired by ACCESS

2006: Palm buys PalmOS source back  from ACCESS.

2009: 3Com acquired by HP

2010: Palm acquired by HP

The whole thing makes my head dizzy.