The 3Com executive team will move from the company’s California and Illinois facilities to its Marlborough, Mass., office.
Located 25 miles west of Boston, Marlborough is home to 3Com’s enterprise networking business which will be its focus after the sale of CommWorks, a maker of Internet protocol telephony equipment. The $100 million deal with UTStarcom is expected to close in the next two months.
3Com will retain its presence in Santa Clara, Calif. Earlier, it said it would lease its facility in Rolling Meadows, Ill.
As of last month, 3Com had approximately 3,900 workers. 3Com spokeswoman Sondra Magness declined to say how many employee work at each facility, or how those numbers will change following the CommWorks sale.
“One of our goals is to unify 3Com’s management team into one location,” said Bruce Claflin, 3Com’s president and CEO. “Because Marlborough will be the operational center of 3Com after the sale of CommWorks, it made sense that we consolidate here.”
In addition, the Marlborough provides better access to customers. Half of 3Com’s sales are on the East Coast and in Europe and most of the financial institutions that represent the company investors are here as well.
And if the networking market stages a comeback, there is no lack of skilled workers in along the Interstate 495 corridor, where Marlborough sits. During the late 1990s dozens of startups set up shop in the area. Some have gone under, leaving workers unemployed or under-employed.
Joining Claflin will be: CFO Mark Slaven; Executive Vice President of Operations Dennis Connors; and to-be-hired EVP Sales will be making Marlborough, Massachusetts their primary work location. Anik Bose, vice president of business development who will remain at 3Com’s Santa Clara campus.
Other members of the senior staff will leave the company, including Gwen McDonald senior vice president of corporate services, Mar Michael, general counsel, and Jeanne Cox, vice president of communications.
“The departing 3Com executives . . . had personal reasons for declining the move to the Marlborough campus,” 3Com spokeswoman Magness told internetnews.com.
