HP to acquire 3Com

HP announced that it will purchase 3Com Corporation, a provider of networking switching, routing and security solutions, at a price of US$7.90 per share in cash or an enterprise value of approximately US$2.7 billion. The terms of the transaction have been approved by the HP and 3Com boards of directors.

This combination will underscore HP’s next-generation data centre strategy built on the convergence of servers, storage, networking, management, facilities and services, intended to help customers simplify their networks and deploy an edge-to-core network fabric for their enterprise.

Dave Donatelli, Executive Vice-President, Enterprise Servers and Networking, HP, stated: “By acquiring 3Com, we are accelerating the execution of our converged infrastructure strategy and bringing disruptive change to the networking industry. By combining HP ProCurve offerings with 3Com’s extensive set of solutions, we will enable customers to build a next-generation network infrastructure that supports customer needs from the edge of the network to the heart of the data centre.”

“Our extensive product line and innovative technology, together with HP’s breadth and scale, will expand our global opportunity,” said Bob Mao, Chief Executive Officer, 3Com. “3Com’s networking products are based on a modern architecture which has been designed to offer better performance, require less power and eliminate administrative complexity when compared against current network offerings.”

The 3Com acquisition will expand HP’s ethernet switching offerings, add routing solutions and bring network security capabilities through TippingPoint intrusion prevention systems into the portfolio.

The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2010.