When Palm will be bought, i think the resulting company won't build smartphones anymore (the revenue stream) but will only be bought because of Palms patents.

I don't really think this will actually happen, but if Apple buys ARM, it would basically have power over the whole mobile phone market (plus settop boxes, receivers, TVs and almost every other embedded system). It would put the competition to a serious disadvantage for years (until competition is able to switch to a new platform).

Even just owning a core technology like ARM has, in the hands of one company, cannot be good for competition, the market and the customer in any way.

But as i said, i actually don't believe that Apple will buy ARM. That day, i will lose all the last hope i have in the regulation of the market.