Word on the street is that Palm Inc., is looking for a buyer and that Nokia may be interested. No.2 Motorola Inc., has also been mentioned as a potential buyer. Shares of Palm increased 11% last Friday to as high as $18.08, on renewed speculation of a pending sale.

However, several analysts questioned why Nokia or Motorola would need Palm. The think computer manufacturers like Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc would be more attracted to Palm as a way to enter into the market for wireless services.Another word on the Street is that Alltel Corp. has increased efforts to sell itself to carriers such as AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp. In recent weeks, Alltel has made overtures to AT&T, and the San Antonio-based telecom giant has been willing to entertain the possibility.

However, AT&T remains skeptical about a combination because of potential antitrust problems, technology-integration issues and Alltel's stock-market capitalization, which Friday stood at nearly $22 billion.