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Hewlett-Packard said on Wednesday that it had reached an agreement to acquire 3Com, a provider of computer network equipment, for US$2,7bn in a deal that HP plans as a springboard for an assault on the market leader in networking, Cisco, The New York Times reports.
In an interview, Ann Livermore, an executive vice-president of HP, described computer networking as a $40bn/year market with high profit margins that is growing briskly and dominated by Cisco, which has so far had little head-to-head competition.
“HP is eager and now positioned to disrupt the networking industry,” Livermore said.
