I thought it was PalmSource (bought by Access), not PalmOne (now Palm) that bought BE? I may be mistaken though.
Another thing that nobody could yet figure out the details about is that Palm (formerly PalmOne) kept hiring Linux programmers over the last two years, apparently doing some Linux work in parallel with what PalmSource was doing. PalmSource started its Linux work by buying a Chinese linux mobile company, and Access continued this after buying PalmSource.
What it all ends up with is anybody's guess.