HP Announces $2.7bn Acquisition of 3Com

By Jane McEntegart
published

HP has announced a $2.7 billion acquisition of networking company 3Com.

Despite yesterday being Veteran's Day, HP was busier than ever. At the end of the business day, the company announced plans to purchase networking company 3Com in a multi-billion dollar deal.

The deal, already approved by the board, will see HP acquire 3Com for $7.90 per share, or $2.7 billion and bring the two that little bit closer to networking competitor, Cisco.

CNet reports that Cisco released the following statement in response to the news:

"While Cisco has a healthy respect for all of our competitors, acquisitions in our industry only validate the fact that networking is becoming the platform for all forms of communications and IT. As the leader in the networking market, Cisco is very confident in our business strategy, commitment to product innovation and ability to provide strategic business value to our customers in a highly competitive marketplace."

The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2010.

Jane McEntegart
17 Comments Comment from the forums
  • hellwig
    3Com, I haven't heard much about that name since the days of 56k modems. I still have a 56k 3Com modem. Don't use it anymore obviously, but I still have it.

    I suppose 3Com has been much busier in the corporate sector than in the commercial sector. How many network companies does this leave? HP/3Com, Cisco/Linksys, Netgear, and D-Link? Getting pretty scarce out there.
    Reply
  • darkknight22
    all depends on the market you're in. Cisco def has the most wide reaching product offering but there are specialized competitors as well.

    i think this is great for HP as there commercial grade equipment is top notch. adding 3Com should only bring great things.
    Reply
  • Niva
    3com are the most rock solid nic cards, I have a PCI NIC from 3com which came in a PC I bought in 96 and I still use that sucka! Not the PC, the NIC card in another one I built in 2005 :)

    They did fade away into obscurity lately though, thought the company had already folded. Kinda sad to hear HP bought them but I guess it's the way of things these days... either die or get bought out.
    Reply
  • jerther
    Now who's gonna buy HP! I wonder how much it's worth
    Reply
  • martel80
    JertherNow who's gonna buy HP! I wonder how much it's worth
    Its current market capitalization is about $118 billion.
    http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=HPQ&d=t

    If you would like to buy it, you would need to fork out way more (many people/companies probably value it much more than the current market price).
    Reply
  • rooket
    I hope they don't churn out 3com chips under the Compaq plant. This sounds like bad news to me. I think HP has some neat laptops these days but it is kind of questionable. My coworker had to return his HP i7 destkop twice and get a refund. They have good printers though.

    I've been looking at those new i7 laptops HP have, I just would rather a cleaner look on the back without the big dorky HP logo on it.
    Reply
  • jerther
    @martel80
    Wow! That's a lot! thanks for the info!

    3com:
    "We're slightly richer!" --Mr. Burns
    Reply
  • michaelahess
    hellwig, there are many more, here's a few:

    Extreme, Juniper, Foundry, Allied Telesis, Corecess, Arris, and many more that I don't care to remember. This is peanuts compared to the big boys. That being Cisco, Extreme, Juniper, and Foundry.

    In fact, here's a list on wiki:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Networking_hardware_companies

    And it doesn't seem complete to me for some reason....
    Reply
  • Computer_Lots
    I suppose 3Com has been much busier in the corporate sector than in the commercial sector. How many network companies does this leave? HP/3Com, Cisco/Linksys, Netgear, and D-Link? Getting pretty scarce out there.

    Dude, you can't put Netgear and D-link in the same sentence with Cisco and 3Com. 3com is a serious network equipment provider who builds their own chips and designs their own stuff for. D-link and Netgear make cheapie gear for the average idiot.

    I am still confused as to what HP stands to gain from this purchase. HP already makes their own network gear and it's not bad. I guess swallowing up a competitor helps them in market share.
    Reply
  • Computer_Lots
    Oh, michaelahess... You forgot about Nortel. They also own Netgear.
    Reply