LG has just announced that it has acquired the much-troubled webOS from HP. But instead of using it to power smartphones or tablets, it’s planning to roll out smart TVs which will make use of the OS.

The deal will see LG take control of the source code for webOS, along with “related documentation, engineering talent, and related webOS websites.” It also gets licenses from HP for use with its WebOS products, along with a slew of patents HP obtained from Palm. There’s no word on how much the deal was worth.

The news lends weight to rumours which surfaced late last year, claiming that LG was working on a range of TVs which used webOS. Clearly, LG has had its eye on the software for some time.

It’s the end of a rather said period in the life of webOS, which has been terribly mis-managed by HP. In fact, insiders reported last year that webOS was doomed from the outset at HP because “there were neither the right leaders nor the right engineers to do the job.” Hopefully LG can do a little better. [CNET]