U2 frontman Bono might want to consider holding a benefit concert for Palm.
The principal owner of the ailing smartphone maker, whose shares sank 19 percent yesterday, is himself smarting amid news the company is losing ground against gadget-making rivals Apple and Research In Motion.
Ironically, Bono might have worked against his own investment last summer when he baffled marketing experts by appearing in commercials for RIM’s BlackBerry.
BlackBerry and Apple’s iPhone have since roared through Palm’s turf, capturing sales while Bono’s firm saw as much as a third of its anticipated sales disappear.
Palm had hoped its rollout last fall of two critically admired products — the Pre and Pixi — would help beat back the competition.
But the firm conceded yesterday that the new phones were not the hits management expected, and shares tumbled $1.56 to $6.53 in heavy selling.
“Driving broad consumer adoption of Palm products is taking longer than we anticipated,” Chief Executive Jon Rubinstein said.
What’s more, the firm backed off its earlier prediction of up to $1.8 billion in sales for the year ending in May, saying results would be “well below” that. Analysts now predict sales for the critical December-to-February period will plummet $100 million to $310 million from an earlier estimate.
Bono, whose real name is Paul Hewson, is one of five founders of private equity firm Elevation Partners, which has bankrolled Palm’s ascent with an investment of nearly $500 million.
In the latest filing, made five months ago, Elevation owned 10.3 million shares, with warrants for another 57.5 million shares, or 30 percent of the company.
When Palm rolled out the Pre and Pixi, shares hit a high of $18, more than doubling investors’ original investment of $8.50 a share.
They’re now down 35 percent since January and off 157 percent from that peak.
Elevation didn’t return calls about the current size of its stake or whether investors had cashed out.
Morgan Stanley analyst Ehud Gelbum downgraded Palm to “neutral,” saying Verizon, its wireless service provider, “has puzzlingly refrained from providing the marketing muscle behind the products that we had expected.”paul.tharp@nypost.com