Palm, the struggling pioneer of handheld organisers that is at a critical juncture in its efforts to secure its foothold in the smartphone business, on Monday received a much-needed vote of confidence from its largest shareholder in the form of a $100m investment.

The injection of cash, from private equity firm Elevation Partners, calmed some of the concerns that had blown up on Wall Street in recent weeks following news of a dramatic fall-off in sales of Palm’s existing line of PDAs and smartphones.