3Com Corporation was an American digital electronics manufacturer best known for its

computer network A computer network is a collection of communicating computers and other devices, such as printers and smart phones. In order to communicate, the computers and devices must be connected by wired media like copper cables, optical fibers, or b ...

products. The company was co-founded in 1979 by

Robert Metcalfe Robert "Bob" Melancton Metcalfe (born April 7, 1946) is an American engineer and entrepreneur who contributed to the development of the internet in the 1970s. He co-invented Ethernet, co-founded 3Com, and formulated Metcalfe's law, which desc ...

, Howard Charney and others. Bill Krause joined as President in 1981. Metcalfe explained the name 3Com was a contraction of "Computer Communication Compatibility", with its focus on

Ethernet Ethernet ( ) is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

technology that he had co-invented, which enabled the networking of computers. 3Com provided

network interface controller A network interface controller (NIC, also known as a network interface card, network adapter, LAN adapter and physical network interface) is a computer hardware component that connects a computer to a computer network. Early network interface ...

and

switches In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type o ...

, routers,

wireless access point In Computer networking device, computer networking, a wireless access point (WAP) (also just access point (AP)) is a networking hardware device that allows other Wi-Fi devices to connect to a wired network or wireless network. As a standalone ...

s and controllers, IP voice systems, and intrusion prevention systems. The company was based in

Santa Clara, California Santa Clara ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "Clare of Assisi, Saint Clare") is a city in Santa Clara County, California. The city's population was 127,647 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities and towns i ...

. From its 2007 acquisition of 100 percent ownership of H3C Technologies Co., Limited (H3C) —initially a joint venture with China-based Huawei Technologies—3Com achieved a market presence in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, and a significant networking market share in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, and the Americas. 3Com products were sold under the brands 3Com, H3C, and TippingPoint. On April 12, 2010,

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...

completed the acquisition of 3Com. It was merged into HPE's

Aruba Networks HPE Aruba Networking, formerly known as Aruba Networks, is a Santa Clara, California-based security and networking subsidiary of Hewlett Packard Enterprise company. The company was founded in Sunnyvale, California in 2002 by Keerti Melkote and ...

business unit following HP's acquisition of Aruba in 2015 and subsequent split into HPE later that same year.

History

Xerox PARC (1972–1979)

After reading an article on

ALOHAnet ALOHAnet, also known as the ALOHA System, or simply ALOHA, was a pioneering computer networking system developed at the University of Hawaii. ALOHAnet became operational in June 1971, providing the first public demonstration of a wireless pack ...

became interested in computer networking. ALOHAnet was an over-the-air

wide area network A wide area network (WAN) is a telecommunications network that extends over a large geographic area. Wide area networks are often established with leased telecommunication circuits. Businesses, as well as schools and government entities, use ...

system in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

using

ultra high frequency Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter ...

radios and made several assumptions that Metcalfe thought would not be correct in practice. He developed his own theories of how to manage traffic, and began to consider an "ALOHAnet in a wire" networking system. In 1972, he joined

Xerox PARC Future Concepts division (formerly Palo Alto Research Center, PARC and Xerox PARC) is a research and development company in Palo Alto, California. It was founded in 1969 by Jacob E. "Jack" Goldman, chief scientist of Xerox Corporation, as a div ...

to develop these ideas, and after pairing up with

David Boggs David Reeves Boggs (June 17, 1950 – February 19, 2022) was an American electrical and radio engineer who developed early prototypes of Internet protocols, file servers, gateways, network interface cards and, along with Robert Metcalfe and o ...

, the two had early 3 Mbit/s versions of Ethernet working in 1973. They then went on to build up a networking protocol known as

PARC Universal Packet The PARC Universal Packet (PUP or PuP, although the original documents usually use Pup) was one of the two earliest internetworking protocol suites; it was created by researchers at Xerox PARC in the mid-1970s. (Technically, the name ''PUP'' on ...

(PuP), with the entire system ready for build-out by late 1974. At this point, Xerox management did nothing with it, even after being approached by prospective customers. Increasingly upset by management's lack of interest, Metcalfe left Xerox in 1975, but he was lured back again the next year. Further development followed, resulting in the seminal

Xerox Network Systems Xerox Network Systems (XNS) is a computer networking protocol suite developed by Xerox within the Xerox Network Systems Architecture. It provided general purpose network communications, internetwork routing and packet delivery, and higher level ...

(XNS) protocol, which was completed by 1978. Once again, Metcalfe found that management was unwilling to actually do anything with the product, and he threatened to leave and in 1979 he left the company.

Founding and early days (1979–1996)

Metcalfe subsequently co-founded 3Com in 1979. The other co-founders were Metcalfe's college friend Howard Charney and two others. Bill Krause joined as President in 1981 and became CEO in 1982 and led 3Com until 1992 when he retired. 3Com began making Ethernet adapter cards for many early 1980s computer systems, including the DEC LSI-11, DEC VAX-11,

Sun-2 The Sun-2 series of UNIX workstations and servers was launched by Sun Microsystems in November 1983. As the name suggests, the Sun-2 represented the second generation of Sun systems, superseding the original Sun-1 series. The Sun-2 series used ...

and the

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the List of IBM Personal Computer models, IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible ''de facto'' standard. Released on ...

. In the mid-1980s, 3Com branded their Ethernet technology as EtherSeries, while introducing a range of software and PC-based equipment to provide shared services over a

local area network A local area network (LAN) is a computer network that interconnects computers within a limited area such as a residence, campus, or building, and has its network equipment and interconnects locally managed. LANs facilitate the distribution of da ...

(LAN) using XNS protocols. These protocols were branded EtherShare (for file sharing), EtherPrint (for printing), EtherMail (for

email Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...

), and Ether- 3270 (for

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

host emulation). 3Com became a public company via an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

(IPO) in 1984. The company's network software products included: *

3+Share 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious and cultural significance in many societies ...

file and printer sharing. * 3+Mail e-mail. * 3+Route for routing XNS over a 3+ Server serial port towards a remote 3+ (Route) LAN. * 3+Remote/PC for routing XNS towards a Remote 3+ PC Workstation serial port. * 3+NetConnect to support flexible XNS routing between a number of connected 3+ Ethernets AND/OR Token Ring Networks. * 3+3270/SNA Gateway to enable standard 3+ MS-DOS workstations to emulate standard IBM 3270 Terminals, via the 3+ LAN and the connected SNA Gateway, towards a remote IBM-compatible mainframe system * MultiConnect (?) was a chassis-based multi-port

10BASE2 10BASE2 (also known as cheapernet, thin Ethernet, thinnet, and thinwire) is a variant of Ethernet that uses thin coaxial cable terminated with BNC connectors to build a local area network. During the mid to late 1980s, this was the dominant ...

Ethernet repeater. * 3Server, a server-grade PC for running 3+ services. * 3Station, a

diskless workstation A diskless node (or diskless workstation) is a workstation or personal computer without disk drives, which employs network booting to load its operating system from a server. (A computer may also be said to ''act as a diskless node'', if its dis ...

. * 3+Open file and printer sharing (based on

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

LAN Manager LAN Manager is a discontinued network operating system (NOS) available from multiple vendors and developed by Microsoft in cooperation with 3Com Corporation. It was designed to succeed 3Com's 3+Share network server software which ran atop a h ...

). * Etherterm terminal emulation. * Etherprobe LAN analysis software. * DynamicAccess software products for Ethernet load balancing, response time, and RMON II distributed monitoring. 3Com 3C509BC Ethernet NIC

3Com's expansion beyond its original base of PC and thin Ethernet products began in 1987 when it merged with Bridge Communications. This provided a range of equipment based on

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...

68000 processors and using XNS protocols compatibly with 3Com's Etherterm PC software. * CS/1, CS/200 communication servers ("terminal servers") * Ethernet bridges and XNS routers * GS/1-X.25 X.25 gateway * CS/1-SNA SNA gateway * NCS/1 network control software running on a

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...

computer By 1995, 3Com's status was such that they were able to enter into an agreement with the city of

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

to pay $900,000 per year for the

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization where a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event (most often sports venues), typical ...

Candlestick Park Candlestick Park was an outdoor stadium located in the Bayview-Hunters Point, Hunters Point area of San Francisco, California, United States. It was originally the home of Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants, who played there from 1960 S ...

. That agreement ended in 2002.

1997–2000

In 1997, 3Com merged with

USRobotics U.S. Robotics Corporation, often called USR, is a company that produces USRobotics computer modems and related products. Its initial marketing was aimed at bulletin board systems, where its high-speed HST protocol made FidoNet transfers much fast ...

(USR), a maker of dial-up modems, and owner of Palm, Inc. USRobotics was known for its Sportster line of consumer-oriented modems, as well as its Courier business-class modem line. This merger spelled the beginning of the end of 3Com. In addition to consumer network electronics, USRobotics was a well-known manufacturer of a dialup access server, the "Total Control Hub", rebadged by 3Com as the "Total Control 1000", based largely on its Courier modem technology. This key business product competed against Cisco's AS5200 access server line in the mid-1990s as the explosion of the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

led to service provider investment in dialup access server equipment. 3Com continued the development of the Total Control line until it was eventually spun off as a part of Commworks, which was then acquired by UTStarcom. In August 1998, Bruce Claflin was named

chief operating officer A chief operating officer (COO), also called chief operations officer, is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization (i.e. personnel, resources, and logistics). COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the C ...

. The modem business was rapidly shrinking. 3Com attempted to enter the

DSL Digital subscriber line (DSL; originally digital subscriber loop) is a family of technologies that are used to transmit digital data over telephone lines. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean asymmetric di ...

business, but was not successful. In the lucrative server

(NIC) business, 3Com dominated market share, with

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

only able to break past 3Com after dramatic price slashing. It started developing

Gigabit Ethernet In computer networking, Gigabit Ethernet (GbE or 1 GigE) is the term applied to transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a gigabit per second. The most popular variant, 1000BASE-T, is defined by the IEEE 802.3ab standard. It came into use in ...

cards in-house but later scrapped the plans. Later, it formed a joint venture with

Broadcom Broadcom Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational designer, developer, manufacturer, and global supplier of a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. Broadcom's product offerings serve the data cen ...

, where Broadcom would develop the main

integrated circuit An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...

component and the NIC would be 3Com branded. In 1999, 3Com acquired NBX, a Boston company with an Ethernet-based phone system for small and medium-sized businesses. This product proved popular with 3Com's existing distribution channel and saw rapid growth and adoption. As one of the first companies to deliver a complete networked phone system, and increased its distribution channel with larger telephony partners such as Southwestern Bell and

Metropark Communications {{Infobox company , name = Metropark Communications, Inc. , logo = Mplogo wiki trns.png , type = Private , company_slogan = , foundation = 1993 , location_city = St. Louis, Missouri , location_country = , industry = Telecommunications , ...

, 3Com helped make

VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...

into a safe and practical technology with wide adoption. 3Com then tried to move into the smart consumer appliances business and in June 2000, 3Com acquired internet radio startup Kerbango for $80 million. It developed its Audrey appliance, which made an appearance on ''

The Oprah Winfrey Show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'' is an American first-run syndicated talk show that was hosted by Oprah Winfrey. The show ran for twenty-five seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in which it broadcast 4,561 episodes. The show was taped i ...

''. It scrapped the Audrey and Kerbango products less than a year later. In March 2000, in a highly public and criticized move, 3Com exited the high-end core routers and switch market to focus on other areas of the business. The CoreBuilder Ethernet and ATM LAN switches, PathBuilder and NetBuilder WAN Routers were all discontinued June 2000. CoreBuilder products and the customer base was migrated over to

Extreme Networks Extreme Networks, Inc. is an American networking company based in Morrisville, North Carolina. Extreme Networks designs, develops, and manufactures wired and wireless network infrastructure equipment and develops the software for network managem ...

. The PathBuilder and NetBuilder were transitioned to Motorola. 3Com focused its efforts from 2000 to 2003 on building up the HomeConnect, OfficeConnect, SuperStack, NBX and Total Control product lines. Due to this perceived exit from the Enterprise market, 3Com would never gain momentum with large customers or carriers again. In July 2000, 3Com spun off

Palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae ** List of Arecaceae genera **Palm oil * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music ...

as an independent company. Following Palm's IPO, 3Com continued to own 80percent of Palm, but 3Com's

market capitalization Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders. Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by ...

was smaller than Palm's. U.S. Robotics was also spun out again as a separate company at this time.

2001 and beyond

In January 2001, Claflin became

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

, replacing Éric Benhamou, CEO from 1990 to 2000. He was criticized for the costly diversification in the mobile handheld computer market. At this point, the company's main line of business, selling add-on network interface controllers ("NICs"), was also shrinking rapidly, mainly because many new computers had NICs built in. The company started slashing or selling divisions and going through numerous rounds of layoffs. The company went from employing more than 12,000 employees to fewer than 2,000. In May 2003, the company moved its

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

Santa Clara headquarters to

Marlborough Marlborough or the Marlborough may refer to: Places Australia * Marlborough, Queensland * Principality of Marlborough, a short-lived micronation in 1993 * Marlborough Highway, Tasmania; Malborough was an historic name for the place at the sou ...

, Massachusetts. It also formed a venture called H3C with

Huawei Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ("Huawei" sometimes stylized as "HUAWEI"; ; zh, c=华为, p= ) is a Chinese multinational corporationtechnology company in Longgang, Shenzhen, Longgang, Shenzhen, Guangdong. Its main product lines include teleco ...

, whereby 3Com would sell and rebrand products under the joint venture. In 2003, 3Com sold its

CommWorks Corporation 3Com Corporation was an American digital electronics manufacturer best known for its computer network products. The company was co-founded in 1979 by Robert Metcalfe, Howard Charney and others. Bill Krause joined as President in 1981. Metcalfe ex ...

subsidiary to UTStarcom, Inc. CommWorks was based in Rolling Meadows,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

, and developed wireline

telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

and

wireless Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information (''telecommunication'') between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided transm ...

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and pri ...

technologies. In January 2006, Claflin announced he would be leaving the company. In January 2006, R Scott Murray became CEO of 3Com and chairman of H3C Technology in China, the joint venture with Huawei Technologies. Murray voluntarily resigned from the company in August 2006 over his concerns about the questionable business ethics of Huawei and potential cyber security risks posed by Huawei. Edgar Masri returned to 3Com to head as president and CEO following Murray's departure. In September 2007, Bain Capital agreed to buy the company for $2.2 billion, with minority equity financing from Huawei Technologies. However, the deal met with US government regulatory opposition and it fell through early in 2008, following concerns over Huawei's risk of conducting cyber security attacks against the United States and its allies, Huawei's former dealings in Iran, and Huawei being operated by a former engineer in China's

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). It consists of four Military branch, services—People's Liberation Army Ground Force, Ground Force, People's ...

. Edgar Masri left the company in April 2008, partially as a result of the failed Bain transaction. In April 2008, Robert Mao was named chief executive, and Ron Sege president and chief operating officer. In fiscal year 2008 ended May 30, 2008, 3Com had annual revenue of $1.3 billion and more than 6,000 employees in over 40 countries. In September 2008, 3Com reported financial results for its fiscal 2009 first quarter, which ended August 29, 2008. Revenue in the quarter was $342.7 million compared to revenue of $319.4 million in the corresponding period in fiscal 2008, a 7 percent increase. Net income in the quarter was $79.8 million, compared with a net loss of $18.7 million in the first quarter of fiscal year 2008. The company reported that it had more than 2,700 engineers, with more than 1,400 United States patents and nearly 180 Chinese-issued patents, as well as more than 1050 pending Chinese applications. It also reported pending applications for 35 separate inventions outside of China covering a wide range of networking technologies.

Acquisition by HP

On November 11, 2009, 3Com and Hewlett-Packard announced that Hewlett-Packard would acquire 3Com for $2.7 billion in cash. On April 12, 2010, Hewlett-Packard completed its acquisition. When Hewlett-Packard split into Hewlett Packard Enterprise and HP Inc., the 3Com unit continued with HPE and was ultimately integrated into

along with the rest of HP's networking portfolio.

Products

* Fixed configuration Ethernet switches including

stackable switch A stackable switch is a network switch that is fully functional operating standalone but which can also be set up to operate together with one or more other network switches, with this group of switches showing the characteristics of a single swi ...

es: 3Com brand Gigabit switches Switch 5500G, 4800G, 4500G, 4200G, Baseline, OfficeConnect; 3Com brand Fast Ethernet switches Switch 5500, 4500, 4210, Baseline, OfficeConnect; H3C brand switches S5600, S5500, S5100, S3600, S3610, S3100. * Modular Chassis switches: 3Com brand 8800, 7900E, 7500. H3C brand S9500, S7500, S7500E. *

Wide area network A wide area network (WAN) is a telecommunications network that extends over a large geographic area. Wide area networks are often established with leased telecommunication circuits. Businesses, as well as schools and government entities, use ...

routers *

Wireless access point In Computer networking device, computer networking, a wireless access point (WAP) (also just access point (AP)) is a networking hardware device that allows other Wi-Fi devices to connect to a wired network or wireless network. As a standalone ...

adapter An adapter or adaptor is a device that converts attributes of one electrical device or system to those of an otherwise incompatible device or system. Some modify power or signal attributes, while others merely adapt the physical form of one co ...

s, and connectivity products *

Internet access Internet access is a facility or service that provides connectivity for a computer, a computer network, or other network device to the Internet, and for individuals or organizations to access or use applications such as email and the World Wide ...

gateways and firewalls, both wired and wireless *

Network management Network management is the process of administering and managing computer networks. Services provided by this discipline include fault analysis, performance management, provisioning of networks and maintaining quality of service. Network managem ...

applications * Network security platforms including the TippingPoint Intrusion Prevention System. * IP Telephony applications including PBX and

Computer Telephony Integration Computer-telephony integration, also called computer–telephone integration or CTI, is a general term for technologies that coordinate interactions between telephones and a computers to be coordinated. The term is predominantly used to descri ...

Telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

products utilized

Voice over Internet Protocol Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables Voice call, voice calls to be tran ...

and

Session Initiation Protocol The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a signaling protocol used for initiating, maintaining, and terminating communication sessions that include voice, video and messaging applications. SIP is used in Internet telephony, in private IP telepho ...

(SIP). Voice platforms included VCX and NBX. *

Local area network A local area network (LAN) is a computer network that interconnects computers within a limited area such as a residence, campus, or building, and has its network equipment and interconnects locally managed. LANs facilitate the distribution of da ...

interface cards * IP Video Surveillance and Network Storage (marketed in China, South Africa, South America and other key markets) * Consumer USB webcams and associated software (3Com HomeConnect) * The 3Com Laser Library which, at the time, was a revolutionary CD based documentation and tech support tool (brain child of Dirk Martin)

Acquisitions

3Com came close to merging with computer maker

Convergent Technologies Convergent Technologies, Inc., was an American computer company formed by a small group of people who left Intel Corporation and Xerox PARC in 1979. Among the founders were CEO Allen Michels, VP Engineering Bob Garrow, head of marketing Kal Hubl ...

, abandoning the pact just two days before a vote was scheduled in March 1986. Later, 3Com went on to acquire the following: * Bridge Communications in 1987 * BICC Data Networks in 1992 * Star-Tek in 1993 * Synernetics in 1993 * Centrum in 1994 * NiceCom in 1994 * AccessWorks, Sonix Communications,

Primary Access Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Work ...

, and Chipcom in 1995 * Axon Networks and OnStream Networks in 1996 *

merger/acquisition in 1997 (included product lines: Sportster, Courier, Palm,

Megahertz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base ...

, Conferencelink, Audrey, and more) * NBX in 1999 * Kerbango in 2000 * TippingPoint in 2005 * Huawei-3Com (H3C) in 2007 (Bought out

's 49% stake for US$882 million from a 2003 joint venture)

Former subsidiaries

CommWorks Corporation was a subsidiary of 3Com Corporation, based in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. It was sold to UTStarcom of

Alameda, California Alameda ( ; ; Spanish for "Avenue (landscape), tree-lined path") is a city in Alameda County, California, United States, located in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay region of the Bay Area. The city is built on an informal archipe ...

in 2003. CommWorks was formerly the Carrier Network Business unit of 3Com, comprising several acquired companies: U.S. Robotics (Rolling Meadows, Illinois), Call Technologies (

Reston, Virginia Reston is a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, and a principal city of both Northern Virginia and the Washington metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, Reston's population was 63,226. Founded in 1964, Rest ...

), and LANsource (

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

). CommWorks was able to use technology from each company to create IP softswitch and IP communications software. U.S. Robotics provided media gateways (the Total Control 1000 product line, formerly used for dial-modem termination) and softswitch technology. Call Technologies provided Unified Messaging software. LANsource provided fax-over-IP software that was integrated with the Unified Messaging platform. The Carrier Network Business unit of 3Com developed an Inter-working function technology that became the first and dominant 2G CDMA wireless data gateway product. In partnership with Unwired Planet (now Openwave) and Qualcomm Quicknet connect allowed for 6 second connect times versus modems connecting the call in approximately 30 seconds. This product was deployed in the United States,

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, and Korea covering the 2G CDMA market sample carriers included Sprint. It led to follow on products that became core to CommWorks now UTStarcom offerings including the 2.5 and 3G packet data gateway products known as PDSN and Home Agents. CommWorks/3Com co-developed an H.323-based softswitch with AT&T in 1998 for use in a "transparent trunking" application for AT&T's residential long-distance customers. Long distance telephone calls were redirected from the LEC's ingress CLASS 5 switch to the Total Control 1000 media gateway, where it was converted from TDM to IP and transported across AT&T's WorldNet IP backbone. When it reached the destination, it was passed to the egress LEC's CLASS 5 switch as an untariffed data call. CommWorks modified the gateway and softswitch software to support SIP for MCI/WorldCom's hosted business offering in 2000. Although 3Com sold CommWorks to UTStarcom, they retained intellectual property rights to the softswitch technology. After modifying the software to enable enterprise PBX features, 3Com released this technology as VCX, the industry's first pure SIP PBX, in 2003.

References

;Bibliography *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:3com Computer companies established in 1979 Networking companies of the United States Networking hardware companies Hewlett-Packard acquisitions Xerox spin-offs 1979 establishments in California Computer companies disestablished in 2010 2010 disestablishments in California 1980s initial public offerings 2010 mergers and acquisitions Defunct companies based in Massachusetts Defunct computer companies of the United States Defunct computer hardware companies Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq