HP might sell webOS for ‘hundreds of millions of dollars,’ says Reuters

No hard details yet, but Reuters is reporting the HP is considering the sale of its webOS unit for “hundreds of millions of dollars,” or far less than the $1.2 billion dollars it paid for Palm just over a year ago. The move comes as new CEO Meg Whitman cleans house at HP in an effort to refocus the company; she promised a swift decision about webOS last month after announcing that HP would cancel a planned spinoff of its PC division and keep it in-house.

Reuters claims to have four sources confirming the sale rumors, and they say Oracle might be among the “several” interested suitors drawn to webOS because of its related patents. That would be wild for several reasons: former HP CEO Mark Hurd led the purchase of Palm and is now at Oracle following his forced ouster, and Oracle is of course suing Google over Android patent issues. It all comes together, doesn’t it? We’ve got a feeling this one’ll move fast — we’ll keep you updated.

Update: Reuters has updated its story and dropped a few more names of other companies rumored to be interested in webOS: Amazon, Research In Motion, IBM, and Intel.