Palm Inc has been planning to spin off their software division next year and they just got a huge boost in the arm for their plans. Sony Corp has agreed to invest $20 million in Palm Inc.'s software division.

In addition to the minority equity investment, Sony also agreed to widen its technical and business collaboration with Palm.

Sony will now own a 6 percent stake in PalmSource, Palm's software unit.

What does this mean for Palm? It means they have the backing of a huge electronics company to make sure their handheld operating system hangs around awhile. After all, they are competing against Microsoft.

Palm stock was up 6 cents to $.67 on the news. A far cry from it's peak of $100+.