Sunnyvale-based mobile phone maker Palm announced on Wednesday that it offered even more shares for sale, raising their total number to 20,000,000 common stock shares. The company also announced the public offering price for these, which was set at $16.25 each, and stated that “the underwriters will also have a 30-day over-allotment option to purchase 3,000,000 additional shares of common stock from Palm at the public offering price.”

According to the handset maker, it expects to receive net proceeds of around $313.1 million, which will be used for “working capital and general corporate purposes.” While this is not the first time when Palm makes a similar move to earn some money, it is the first time when we hear that one of the buyers of Palm's stock might be none other than the world's largest phone vendor, Nokia.

For the time being, however, neither Palm nor Nokia commented on the possibility that the Finnish company might own shares in Palm, yet the speculations on this matter helped Palm's shares reach$17.50 on Nasdaq, the highest level in the past two years. According to Reuters, the 10 percent increase seems to be the result of rumors about a possible takeover from Nokia.

“It could make sense,” said analyst Shaw Wu of Kaufman Brothers, referring to the possibility of an acquisition by Nokia, Reuters reports. “The other thing that is powering Palm's stock is a short squeeze. The stock is pretty heavily shorted. Its probably a combination of both.” Rumors on Palm raising the interest of some of the world’s largest handset makers emerged into the wild before, yet this seems to be the first time when they prove to be so consistent.

Palm has had some bad quarters lately, and registered loss even during the latest three-month period, yet the launch of Palm Pre helped it beat expectations and prove that it has the power to turn to profitability once again.