3Com re-jig leads to sale of LAN and WAN assets

NEWS 3Com will this year dispose of its enterprise LAN and WAN corporate business due to lack of growth and the amount of cash needed to bring it in line with the rest of the company, according to Bruce Claflin, president and chief operating officer at 3Com. Speaking to Silicon.com, Claflin said: "It wasn't doing so bad but it wasn't doing too great. The revenue was below the average and the amount of investment needed was too high." He added: "We also had low market share in the LAN and WAN sector." The company will sell off the networking business to Extreme Networks who will continue to service customers. Claflin said: "Customers can still use the products but will be reporting to new owners." 3Com is also disposing of its analogue modem business, which will be sold to Accton and NatSteel Electronics to form a yet-to-be-named company in which 3Com will hold a minority stake. Claflin said 3Com will focus on three areas - consumers, commercial customers in the small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector and network service providers. The company wants to concentrate on four emerging technologies, in which it claims a good market share - Web-based solutions, IP Telephony, broadband and wireless.