Hewlett-Packard Co. has announced its plan to sell its webOs operating system for smartphones to Korean electronics giant LG Electronics Inc., according to international news agency Reuters.

Under the terms of the deal, LG will acquire the source code of the smartphone software as well as its engineering talent, associated documentation and related websites and license under the intellectual property of HP which also includes patents for user interface technology and fundamental operation system.

Used before in now out-of-the-market Palm smartphones, the webOs operation system will be used for LG's smart or internet-connected televisions.

However, Bill Veghte, chief operation officer of HP, said in an interview that the patents and all technology involved in webOs' cloud service will remain in the company's rights.

LG Electronics had worked on webOs before offering to buy it directly from PC giant maker.