Were they planning this all along?

palmOne, which you may remember was the original Palm, is now buying back the Palm brand name from their former spinoff, PalmSource. Palm, as an entity, has spent its entire existence trying to figure out how its properties should be sliced and diced: First, it was a subsidiary, then it was a spinoff (that happened to be worth more than the parent -- briefly), then, it split into two companies, and now the survivor of that transaction is buying back the assets it spun off piecemeal.

How they manage all this financial engineering and still put out a useable product is beyond me.