3Com

"COMS" redirects here. For the stadium in Manchester, see City of Manchester Stadium.

3Com Corporation

File:3com logo.png
Company type	Public Nasdaq: COMS
Industry	Computer Networks
Founded	October 1979
Headquarters	Marlborough, Massachusetts , United States
Key people	Robert Mao, CEO Ron Sege, Pres. & COO Eric A. Benhamou, Chairman Jay Zager, CFO & Exec. VP
Products	Network hardware
Revenue	US$ 1.3 billion (2008)
Operating income	US$ $496.0 Million (Feb 2009)
Net income	US$ 94.6 Million (Feb 2009)
Number of employees	6,000
Website	www.3com.com

3Com (Nasdaq: COMS) is a manufacturer best known for its computer network infrastructure products. The company was co-founded in 1979 by Robert Metcalfe, Howard Charney, Bruce Borden, and Greg Shaw, and is headquartered in Marlborough, Massachusetts. The name 3Com comes from the company's focus on "Computers, Communication and Compatibility".

On 11 November 2009, 3Com and Hewlett-Packard announced that Hewlett-Packard will be acquiring 3Com for $2.7 billion in cash.

3Com Today

3Com is a global provider of enterprise and small-business networking solutions, offering network switches, routers, wireless access points and controllers, IP voice systems, and intrusion prevention systems. The company is based in Massachusetts, USA. From its 2007 acquisition of 100 percent ownership of H3C Technologies Co., Limited (H3C) -- what was initially a joint venture with China-based Huawei Technologies—3Com today has a leading market presence in China, and a significant networking market share in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. 3Com products are sold under the brands 3Com, H3C, and TippingPoint.

3Com has annual revenue of $1.3 billion (FY08 year ended May 30, 2008) and more than 6,000 employees (FY08) in over 40 countries. In September 2008, 3Com reported financial results for its fiscal 2009 first quarter, which ended August 29, 2008. Revenue in the quarter was $342.7 million compared to revenue of $319.4 million in the corresponding period in fiscal 2008, a 7 percent increase. Net income in the quarter was $79.8 million, or $0.20 per diluted share, compared with a net loss of $18.7 million, or $0.05 per share, in the first quarter of fiscal year 2008.

The company reports it has more than 2,700 engineers, with more than 1,400 U.S. and nearly 180 Chinese issued patents, more than 1050 pending Chinese applications as well as pending applications for 35 separate inventions outside of China that cover a wide range of networking technologies.

On Tue October 6, 2009 3Com shares rose to a 52 week high of US$ 5.49.

Products

Main article: 3Com Products

The common 3Com 3c905-TX 10/100 PCI network interface card

• Fixed configuration Ethernet switches including stackable switches: 3Com brand Gigabit switches Switch 5500G, 4800G, 4500G, 4200G, Baseline, OfficeConnect; 3Com brand Fast Ethernet switches Switch 5500, 4500, 4210, Baseline, OfficeConnect; H3C brand switches S5600, S5500, S5100, S3600, S3610, S3100.
• Modular Chassis switches: 3Com brand 8800, 7900E, 7500. H3C brand S9500, S7500, S7500E.
• Wide area network routers
• Wireless access points, adapters, and connectivity products
• Internet access gateways and firewalls, both wired and wireless
• Network management applications
• Network security platforms including the TippingPoint Intrusion Prevention System.
• IP Telephony applications including PBX and CTI solutions. 3Com's Telecommunications solutions utilize VoIP and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). Voice platforms include VCX and NBX.
• Local area network interface cards
• IP Video Surveillance and Network Storage (marketed in China, South Africa, South America and other key markets)

History Since 1997

In 1997, 3Com merged with U.S. Robotics, a maker of dial-up modems, and owner of Palm, Inc.

The modem business was rapidly shrinking. 3Com attempted to enter the DSL business, but was not successful.

In August 1998, Bruce Claflin was named Chief Operations Officer.

In March 2000, with stiff competition from Cisco, 3Com exited the high-end router business, upsetting its larger corporate customers.

In the server Network interface card business, the more lucrative part of the NIC business, 3Com remained second in market share, after Intel. 3Com never managed to beat Intel with its own products or even with joint ventures with Broadcom . It started developing Gigabit Ethernet cards in-house but later scrapped the plans. Later, it formed a joint venture with Broadcom, where Broadcom would develop the main ASIC component and the NIC would be 3Com branded. The venture fell apart some time later and 3Com no longer had the talent to pursue Gigabit Ethernet on its own.

In 1999 3Com acquired NBX, a Boston company with an Ethernet-based phone system for small and medium sized businesses. This product proved popular with 3Com's existing distribution channel and saw rapid growth and adoption. As one of the first companies to deliver a complete networked phone system, and increased its distribution channel with larger telephony partners such as Southwestern Bell and Metropark Communications, 3Com helped make VoIP into a safe and practical technology with wide adoption.

3Com tried to move into the smart consumer appliances business and on June 2000, 3Com acquired internet radio startup Kerbango for US$80 million. It developed its Audrey appliance, which made an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show. It scrapped the Audrey and Kerbango products less than a year later.

In January 2001, Bruce Claflin became Chief Executive Officer, replacing Eric Benhamou, CEO from 1990 to 2000. He was criticized for the costly diversification in the mobile handheld computer market. At this point, the company's main cash-cow, the Network interface card business, was also shrinking rapidly, mainly because the functionality was integrated into the southbridge of many motherboards. The company started slashing or selling divisions and going through numerous phases of RIFs. The company went from employing more than 12,000 employees to fewer than 2,000.

In July 2000, 3Com spun-off Palm as an independent company. After the IPO, 3Com still owned 80% of Palm but 3Com's market capitalization was smaller than Palm's. U.S. Robotics was also spun out again as a separate company at this time.

In May 2003, the company moved its Silicon Valley Santa Clara headquarters to Marlborough, Massachusetts. It also formed a venture with Huawei whereby 3Com would sell and rebrand products under the joint venture.

In 2003, 3Com sold its CommWorks Corporation subsidiary to UTStarcom, Inc. The CommWorks subsidiary was based in Rolling Meadows, Illinois, and developed wireline telecommunications and wireless infrastructure technologies.

In January 2006, Bruce Claflin announced he would be leaving the company. In the summer, Edgar Masri returned to 3Com to head as President and CEO.

In May 2007, 3Com hired Jay Zager, Gerber Scientific's Chief Financial Officer as executive vice president and CFO effective June 23, 2007.

In September 2007, Bain Capital agreed to buy the company for $2.2B, with minority financing from Huawei Technologies. However, the deal met with US government regulatory opposition and the deal fell through early 2008.

In April 2008, Robert Mao was named Chief Executive Officer, and Ron Sege made President and Chief Operating Officer.

On 11 November 2009, 3Com and Hewlett-Packard announced that Hewlett-Packard will be acquiring 3Com for $2.7 billion in cash.

In March 2010, 3Com reported an increase in revenue of 6.5% to $345.9m.

Earlier History

Robert Metcalfe invented Ethernet at Xerox PARC, and subsequently co-founded 3Com in 1979. 3Com began making Ethernet adaptor cards for many early 1980s computer systems, including the LSI-11, IBM PC, and VAX-11. In the mid-1980s, 3Com would brand their Ethernet technology as EtherSeries, while introducing a range of software and PC-based equipment to provide shared services over a LAN using XNS protocols. These protocols were branded EtherShare (for file sharing), EtherPrint (for printing), EtherMail (for email), and Ether-3270 (for IBM host emulation).

The company's network software products included:

• 3+Share file and printer sharing.
• 3+Mail e-mail.
• 3+Remote for routing XNS over a PC serial port.
• NetConnect for routing XNS between Ethernets.
• (MultiConnect?) was a chassis-based multi-port 10Base2 Ethernet repeater.
• 3Server, a server-grade PC for running 3+ services.
• 3Station, a diskless workstation.
• 3+Open file and printer sharing (based on Microsoft's LAN Manager).
• Etherterm terminal emulation.
• Etherprobe LAN analysis software.
• DynamicAccess software products for Ethernet load balancing, response time, and RMON II distributed monitoring.

3Com's expansion beyond its original base of PC and thin Ethernet products began in 1987 when it merged with Bridge Communications. This provided a range of equipment based on Motorola 68000 processors and using XNS protocols compatibly with 3Com's Etherterm PC software.

• CS/1, CS/200 communication servers ("terminal servers")
• Ethernet bridges and XNS routers
• GS/1-X.25 X.25 gateway
• CS/1-SNA SNA gateway
• NCS/1 network control software running on a Sun2.

Acquisitions

3Com came close to being acquired by UNIX workstation company, Convergent Technologies, abandoning the pact just two days before a vote was scheduled in March 1986. Later, 3Com went on to acquire the following:

• Bridge Communications in 1987
• BICC Data Networks in 1992
• Star-Tek in 1993
• Synernetics in 1993
• Centrum in 1994
• NiceCom in 1994
• AccessWorks, Sonix Communications, Primary Access, and Chipcom in 1995
• Axon and OnStream Networks in 1996
• NBX in 1999
• Kerbango in 2000
• TippingPoint in 2005
• Huawei-3Com in 2007 (Bought out Huawei's 49% stake for US$882 million from a 2003 joint venture)

Former subsidiaries

CommWorks Corporation

CommWorks Corporation was a subsidiary of 3Com Corporation, based in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. It was sold to UTStarcom, Inc. of Alameda, California in 2003.

CommWorks Corporation was a wholly-owned subsidiary company of 3Com Corporation. It was formerly the Carrier Network Business unit of 3Com, comprising several acquired companies: U.S. Robotics (Rolling Meadows, Illinois), Call Technologies (Reston, Virginia), and LANsource (Toronto, Canada). CommWorks was able to use technology from each company to create IP softswitch and IP communications software. U.S. Robotics provided media gateways (the Total Control 1000 product line, formerly used for dial-modem termination) and softswitch technology. Call Technologies provided Unified Messaging software. LANsource provided fax-over-IP software that was integrated with the Unified Messaging platform.

The Carrier Network Business unit of 3Com developed an IWF solution which became the first and dominant 2G CDMA wireless data gateway product. In partnership with Unwired Planet (now Openwave) and Qualcomm Quicknet connect was launched allowing for a breakthrough of 6 second connect times versus the standard solution which required modems to connect the call (approximately 30+ seconds). This product solution was deployed successfully throughout the United States, Japan, and Korea covering the 2G CDMA market sample carriers included Sprint. It led to follow on products that became core to CommWorks now UTStarcom offerings including the 2.5 and 3G packet data gateway products known as PDSN and Home Agents.

CommWorks/3Com co-developed an H.323-based softswitch with AT&T in 1998 for use in a "transparent trunking" application for AT&T's residential long-distance customers. In this solution, long distance telephone calls were redirected from the LEC's ingress CLASS 5 switch to the Total Control 1000 media gateway, where it was converted from TDM to IP and transported across AT&T's WorldNet IP backbone. When it reached the destination, it was passed to the egress LEC's CLASS 5 switch as an untariffed data call.

CommWorks modified the gateway and softswitch software to support SIP for MCI/WorldCom's hosted business offering in 2000.

Although 3Com sold CommWorks to UTStarcom, they retained intellectual property rights to the softswitch technology. After modifying the software to enable enterprise PBX features, 3Com released this technology as VCX, the industry's first pure SIP PBX, in 2003.

See also

• 3Station
• 3Com NBX
• Busy Override

References

This article is based on material taken from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing prior to 1 November 2008 and incorporated under the "relicensing" terms of the GFDL, version 1.3 or later.

External links

• Official homepage of 3Com Corporation
• Official H3C homepage
• Eric Benhamou and the Turnaround of 3Com - interview with Sramanamitra.com
• Business data for 3Com Corporation:
  • SEC filings