Hewlett-Packard reached an agreement to acquire 3Com, for $2.7 billion in a deal that will help improve H.P.’s business in China, expand its network gear business, and position it to challenge the market leader in networking, Cisco Systems.
Under chief executive Mark V. Hurd, Hewlett-Packard has been beefing up its network equipment offerings to compete more aggressively against Cisco to sell data-center gear to corporations. But so far, H.P. has mostly supplied smaller equipment used in office networks, both wired and wireless.
Per Ann Livermore, EVP at HP, they had been "missing networking for the core of the data center.... That’s where Cisco is strong, and before, HP couldn’t attack that.”
That move came shortly after Cisco linked up with EMC and VMware in a partnership which tightly integrates storage alongside easy-to-manage virtualized data-center bundles called V-Blocks.
The 3Com acquisition broadens the networking technology HP can fold into its data-center offerings. "Our extensive product line and innovative technology together with HP's breadth and scale will expand our global opportunity," said 3Com CEO Bob Mao.
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