Samsung CEO: We would “never” buy WebOS

Samsung CEO Choi Gee Sung has quashed rumors that the company is interested in HP’s webOS software, saying that it would “never” pursue such a deal, Bloomberg reports.

Samsung seemed like one of the better fits for webOS, and we reported last week that it was possibly interested in snapping up the software. But now it seems HP will be stuck with webOS for some time, unless another brave company steps up to buy it.

“It’s not right that acquiring an operating system is becoming a fashion,” Choi told reporters at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin. He went on to say that the company is working on its Bada software for low-end phones “harder than people outside think.”

We noted last month that Bada had a bigger worldwide market share than Microsoft’s flagship Windows Phone 7 platform, according to Gartner.

Other potential buyers for webOS include HTC and Facebook, Bloomberg reports. I can’t see such a deal happening with either company though — HTC is doing quite well building gorgeous Android and Windows Phone devices, and owning a mobile OS seems like a major distraction for Facebook.

HP announced weeks ago that it was giving up on webOS hardware like the Pre and TouchPad and will instead focus on licensing the software. The company plans to make another run of webOS-powered TouchPad tablets for the US, after the tablet became a hit with deal-hounds when it was discounted to $99.