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Speculation that Palm, Inc. may soon be acquired by another company has been circulating for weeks now. The latest rumor says a deal could close as soon as March 22, this Thursday.

According to an unconfirmed report by Unstrung, Morgan Stanley, the banker reportedly working with Palm to close a deal, wants to complete the acquisition by the time the Treo-maker reports its 2007 third-quarter fiscal year results later this week.

Supposedly, there are four potential buyers for the PDA pioneer: a couple of private equity firms, Texas Pacific Group and Silver Lake Partners, and the two largest mobile phone vendors in the world, Nokia and Motorola.

Morgan Stanley is said to favor Nokia as the buyer, while Palm's management would rather one of the two private equity firms win the bidding war.

Should either Texas Pacific Group or Silver Lake Partners acquire Palm, then it is likely the company would continue as is, but with management changes and, more importantly, more money for product development. Should Nokia or Motorola buy Palm, then it could mean the end of Palm as we know it. Perhaps even the end of the Palm brand.

For more on the recent Palm acquisition rumors, see here.