Hewlett-Packard on Wednesday agreed to buy 3Com for $2.7bn in cash, escalating its competitive war with Cisco Systems. The 3Com purchase would make HP, the top computer maker, number two in the market for networking gear – Cisco’s core business. 3Com has about 30% of the growing Chinese market for networking equipment, stemming from a previous joint venture with China’s Huawei, and HP said it intended to use its larger sales force to distribute 3Com gear more broadly.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 4:59 and is filed under Capital markets, M&A. Tagged with 3Com, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard. Edit this entry.