HP just released information that they’ve “entered into a definitive agreement under which HP will purchase Palm.” The pricetag is $5.70 a share, putting the total cost at around $1.2 billion.

“We’re thrilled by HP’s vote of confidence in Palm’s technological leadership, which delivered Palm webOS and iconic products such as the Palm Pre. HP’s longstanding culture of innovation, scale and global operating resources make it the perfect partner to rapidly accelerate the growth of webOS,” said Jon Rubinstein, chairman and chief executive officer, Palm. “We look forward to working with HP to continue to deliver industry-leading mobile experiences to our customers and business partners.”

Obviously, though, this plays into the operating assumption that HP’s been working with this year – that consumer tech is converging the three fields of cloud, social, and mobile (a theory we first highlighted in our extensive 2010 Predictions Series, our own Esteban Contreres talked about with HP’s Becca Taylor, and John Furrier discussed with HP’s Marius Haas).

We’ll have more information as it’s available.

Update: John’s on the horn with HP to get some more information, but looking through our archives, both John Furrier and Nate D’Amico predicted this sale here on SiliconANGLE. Read Nate’s prediction here and John’s prediction here.

Update II: Some slides and quotes from the press conference:

“HP brings to the table financial strength. We intend to invest heavily in product development, and we intend to drive this market.”

“The expectation is that the merger will close in Q3, an all-cash transaction.”

“The operating system Palm has developed brought rich experiences like true multitasking. Behind that is a strong IP portfolio, and behind that is a deep bench of engineering talent.”