This merger sure went a lot smoother than Oracle and Sun. Hewlett-Packard today closed its nearly $3 billion purchase of 3Com, giving HP some significant heft in the networking space. So what will this mean for the end user? Enterprise Networking Planet finds out.
HP’s networking and security business got a bit larger on Monday with the close of its bid to acquire networking vendor 3Com.
HP (NYSE: HPQ) is paying $2.7 billion, or $7.90 per share, for 3Com.
HP announced its intention to acquire 3Com in November 2009. With 3Com, HP gains a number of key assets in terms of networking, security and geography.
3Com has a portfolio of networking products, including the Data Center Core Switch, that attracted the attention of HP. During the November press conference announcing the 3Com acquisition, Marius Haas, the senior vice president and general manager of HP’s ProCurve Networking division, noted that HP did not have a core networking switch. With the acquisition of 3Com’s products, Haas said that HP would have an edge-to-core networking portfolio.