Unstrung's Dan Jones reports that Palm, Inc. will likely be sold by the end of the week.

"Nokia Corp. is seen as the leading vendor bidder, while Palm's management is said to prefer a private equity buyer," Jones writes. "Morgan Stanley -- the banker that the PDA pioneer has been working with to explore its options -- wants to wrap a deal by the 22nd, the day that Palm is due to report its third quarter results."

Other potential buyers include rival handset maker Motorola and private equity firms Texas Pacific Group and Silver Lake Partners.

According to Computerworld's Matt Hamblen, Farpoint Group analyst Craig Mathias thinks the private equity firms make the most sense -- while Motorola, which largely uses Windows Mobile, and Nokia, which largely uses Symbian, don't have much use for the Palm operating system. "Maybe one would buy Palm and shut it down ... to keep intellectual property out of the hands of competitors," Mathias says.

More here from the AP ... and more here from Reuters.