Today Palm announced that that its board of directors has appointed Jon Rubinstein to lead the company as Chairman and CEO upon the departure of Ed Colligan, who is stepping down after sixteen years of leadership at the company. Rubinstein, who joined Palm as Executive Chairman in October 2007 to help bring innovation back to the company, assumes his role as CEO on June 12. Colligan plans to take some time off, then join Elevation Partners.

Per a story appearing in The Wall Street Journal, a Palm spokeswoman said Mr. Colligan is stepping down as "he's accomplished what he's set forth to do and now Jon is the right person to step up and take the company into the next era." She said Messrs. Rubinstein and Colligan weren't available for comment.

ZDNet's Larry Dignan, in his post "Palm injects Apple DNA: Colligan out as CEO; Rubinstein in" remarked:

"Overall, the Pre launch makes a nice transition to new leadership. Rubinstein�s appointment to CEO will make Palm an interesting company to watch going forward.

Time will tell if the Pre saved Palm and gives Rubinstein the runway to ressurrect the company. The initial sales of the Pre were strong, but analysts expect it to be a slow ramp in terms of units.

Over at CNET, Erica Ogg's story (Palm picks new pilot to run company) included this comment from Michael Gartenberg:

"This had been a strange (management) relationship for quite a while," analyst Michael Gartenberg said. "It has been clear to most observers that Jon has been calling the shots for quite some time. This just formalizes it. It was very clear Palm's investors had brought Rubinstein in to run the company."

Palm's stock is up in after-hours trading on this news.

Photo via CNET.

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