Hewlett-Packard’s $2.7 billion bid for 3Com will enable HP to fill some holes in its ProCurve product portfolio as it continues to challenge Cisco Systems in the $40 billion networking space, and as the two sides collide in the burgeoning competition for converged data center solutions. According to some analysts, Cisco owned about 52 percent of the networking market, while HP and 3Com were a distant second and third, followed by a host of other vendors. Combined, HP and 3Com will have about 20 percent of the market, making it a solid No. 2 to Cisco. The deal also adds to HP’s unified communications story and gives it greater traction in the important Chinese market.
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