Sources are telling us that despite all of the chatter from the Verizon camp saying that they would be offering the Palm Pre in January once the Sprint exclusive had ended; and it looks like this is no longer the case. We hear whispers today that Verizon has elected to skip the Pre totally.

The news on one hand is good news for Sprint, who still enjoys an exclusive on the Palm Pre; but the bad news is for Palm, who will not have the chance to get the Pre into the hands of Verizon customers. A good number of Verizon customers were said to be looking forward to the launch of the Pre on the Verizon network, so the news that Verizon will not be offering the Pre is not going to be well received by everyone.

From what we are hearing, the exact reason for the deal breaker is not really known. Some suspect that the deal could be a money thing, but could also be a hardware or performance thing, as well. Right now it seems that neither of those in the Verizon or Palm camps is talking, but our moles continue to dig to find out the exact reason for the change.

All is not lost for U.S. subscribers who want the Palm Pre, as AT&T is still planning to add the Pre. From what our AT&T sources tell us, it will likely be late February before the Pre hits the shelves at AT&T. Still, it could be tough sledding for the Pre at AT&T, with it competing against both the iPhone as well as the latest BlackBerry models that are expected to arrive.

Palm’s loss of access to the Verizon customer base in the U.S. does strike a blow to what the company is trying to do to reestablish itself as a major player in the market. While Sprint’s sales during the exclusive time frame have not been stellar or maybe as much as Palm hoped, it did get good reviews and has shown the potential of the WebOS operating system. It is expected that Sprint could be the winner in the end, as it is expected that if Verizon does not get the Pre, then Sprint might push the Pre even harder.