HP Spins Off webOS Into A Brand New Company Called Gram; Mission Unknown

Ever since HP killed off webOS hardware, the fate of the webOS GBU (general business unit) was as yet unknown. But according to a flyer that has floated out of the HP office, it would seem that the webOS group, along with Enyo and Cloud services, has branched away from the mother ship to start a brand new company: Gram.

According to a flyer sent out to announce the new brand, Gram is “Potent. Light. Nimble. At the core of all things big and small.” Alright? So what do you guys do at Gram?

“Gram is a new company leveraging the core strengths of webOS, Enyo and our Cloud offerings, as well as the firepower of our partners to create a technology that will unleash the freedom of the web.”

In other words, we have no earthly idea what Gram is all about. What we do know is that it will be a separate entity from HP, though still funded by the California tech giant. This will allow cash flow for the newborn company without tying it to the increasingly water-filled ship that is HP.

The folks over at webOS Nation managed to get their hands on an internal email to the new Gram employees, explaining that while the company is in stealth, workers should only build momentum for the brand with friends and family, but nothing further.

Check it out:

Hi everyone,

Thank you for all of your enthusiasm at yesterday’s new brand announcement: GRAM. We hope you will fall in love with the brand just as lots of us have already.

Please note that our Mission, Values and Plan of Action are the same. We are continuing to march forward on our timelines as usual—nothing new there.

We have much work to do, and, again, I solicit your help.

Yes, this is a new brand—it is just the beginning, and there is so much more to do. And yet unveiling the new brand is also a Call to Action:

Try it on. We don’t expect you to love it overnight. We are no longer a consumer hardware brand, we are a different company with focus on software, User Experience, Cloud, engineering and partnering. This change in identity will take some getting used to and that’s normal.

Stealth mode. We are an incubation company, and we are trusting you to keep this company name and product under the radar to give it time to take root and grow. You can wear the logo, help build the momentum of the new identity, talk to your families and friends about it. If someone from the outside asks, you can say, “GRAM is a new company. We are in stealth mode on our product offering.”

Tap your network. Help us hire the best and the brightest, refer your friends and help us in our shared purpose as we continue our rise to the top. You can use the name to help us to recruit.

Be the culture. Spread our Values: People Matter. Integrity and Trust. Deliberate Innovation. Act small, deliver big.

For those of you who could not attend yesterday’s unveiling – we really missed you. Please be on the lookout for the gift bags with our new cool branded items, which we be mailing out to you this and next week. All of you should get one, if not – let me know.

Best

Martin

While we know that hardware is out of the picture for Gram, nothing else is all that clear. But we’ll be sure to keep you abreast of the company and its news as more information trickles out.