3Com: one of the longest running shows in networking

Now consumed by HP in a $2.7 billion deal announced Wednesday, 3Com has a long and varied history, summarized here. 1979 – 3Com is founded, and it turns out that Bob Metcalfe, the father of Ethernet, is the father of 3Com, too. He stepped down as CEO in 2001, but he remains chairman. 1994 – The company buys switch maker Synernetics, remote-access server maker Centrum Communications and ATM vendor NiceCom. 1995 – 3Com buys hub and switch vendor ChipCom for $775 million. 1997 – The company spends $7.3 billion to buy U.S. Robotics, the maker of modems and Palm handhelds. 2000 – 3Com gets out of the large enterprise switching market and spins off Palm as a separate entity. 2003 – The company creates a joint venture with Huawei – H-3C - in an effort to get back into large enterprise switching. He holds the post of CEO for three years. 1981 – The company ships its first product, an Ethernet adapter. 1984 – Its initial public offering yields $10 million in stock revenue. 1986 – The company relies on sales of NICs, servers and its network operating system 3+ for most of its sales. 1988 – 3Com ships 3+Open, the first network operating system based on Microsoft's LAN Manager. 1987 – The company buys Bridge Communications, maker of multi-protocol bridges. 1990 – Facing stiff competition from Microsoft and Novell, 3Com gets out of the network operating system business. 1990 – Eric Benhomou is named president and CEO of the company.

The headquarters moves from Santa Clara to Marlborough, Mass. 2004 – 3Com buys IPS maker Tipping Point for $430 million. 2006 – 3Com buys out the H-3C joint venture for $882 million. 2007 – Bain Capital agrees to buy the company with help from Huawei for $2.2 billion, but federal regulators block the deal. 3Com spins out Tipping Point as a separate publicly held business. 2008 – Robert Mao is named CEO and sets up shop in China where H-3C claims dominance. 2009 – 3Com takes another run at the U.S. large enterprise market. The company agrees to be bought by HP for $2.7 billion.