It was just six months ago when 3Com made its highly publicized comeback move with Open Services Networking [OSN], a plan to enable Linux-based applications from third-party vendors, as well as its own, to run on the networking vendor’s routers.
Company CEO Edgar Masri’s plan was greeted with mixed views from analysts and channel partners. Some believed that a comeback would be unexpected, while others thought it might be in the cards.
We will never really know how that would have played out now that private-equity firm Bain Capital Partners and Huawei Technologies of China has swallowed it up for U.S.$2.2 billion. The thing that makes this deal interesting is that 3Com, more than four years ago, entered into a joint venture with Huawei. Huawei was going to be 3Com’s ticket to the enterprise market.
This story made headlines and characterised 3Com and its CEO at the time, Bruce Claflin, as a visonary. Claflin called upon Canadian 3Com chief Nick Tidd to lead the new 3Com/Huawei group.
This move was vastly different than what Cisco Systems did, which spent nearly U.S.$20 billion acquiring smaller companies in Canada and the U.S. While Cisco managed to integrate smaller firms faster and began adding to its portfolio, 3Com/Huawei was dealing with wage inflation problems in China and a major patent infringement lawsuit against rival Cisco.
With Tidd out of the country 3Com Canada closed up shop, which angered the channel community a great deal. The channel had always supported 3Com and now they were left with no local support. Patrick Power, managing partner of Toronto-based reseller OAM Computer Group, a 3Com channel partner, said in a previous story he’d been fairly “self-sufficient” in terms of how he works with 3Com.
As Cisco increased its channel offering by increasing margins and developing rich channel programs, 3Com wasn’t doing much of anything. The channel is a fickle crowd and does not bank on loyalty. The channel went where the money is. And you can’t blame them. 3Com over the years has lacked feet on the street.
The Bain/Huawei bail out may address channel and country resources. It should if they really want to give OSN a real shot at success.
But it may already be too late. The channel has moved on, in my opinion. Cisco, Nortel Networks, Mitel Networks and now Microsoft are making exciting and profitable products and solutions especially in unified communications. Where is 3Com in unified communications?
3Com may go the way of the Dodo bird. The Dodo bird has been a human expression on extinctions and, according to Wikipedia, the reason for that is because the flightless bird’s extinction was witnessed over a long period of time by humans in and around the 17th century. The same could possibly happen to 3Com. We may be witnessing the end of what was once a great company.