Tellumat Telecoms, the converged communications specialist in the Tellumat Group and distributor of ShoreTel’s IP range, says the US vendor’s recent exploits corroborate the benefits that ShoreTel customers report in their own businesses.

In just one week leading into November, ShoreTel won the prestigious Nemertes Best IP Telephony (IPT) Provider award for the sixth time, and joined the select Deloittes Technology Fast 500 club.

Top IPT provider – value and technology stand out

Since Nemertes (www.nemertes.com) launched its independent survey of IPT providers in 2003, ShoreTel (founded 1998) has top-scored in every ratings category. This year it beat a field of 39 in the areas of Value; Customer Service; Technology; Management Tools; as well as Installation and Trouble-Shooting.

“ShoreTel’s key driver continues to be its value with a 4.31 rating out of 5,” the citation reads. “Low prices, a broad set of features, scalability, strong customer service and relatively uncomplicated deployment and troubleshooting all contributed to its win.”

The end-user-only research sample collectively praised ShoreTel’s “exceptional features”, its “highly resilient architecture” and its low upfront and ongoing costs. They add that the vendor’s distributed architecture offers redundancy at an affordable price and is easy to expand.

The interesting aspect of ShoreTel’s achievements is that it is one of a number of IP market ‘challengers’ in the survey, the award citation discloses. And yet, it has outdone all competitors, including the market leaders.

Challengers besides ShoreTel include Microsoft, Alcatel-Lucent, 3Com and Mitel. The ‘market leader’ group is brought up by Cisco, Avaya and Nortel.

For the full report, visit here.

Technology Fast 500

ShoreTel has further been ranked 228^th in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 survey, having grown its revenue by 584% in the five years under consideration (2004 – 2008).

The award category rates the fastest-growing US companies in the IT, telecoms, life sciences and clean technology industries – a voluminous category with stellar performers.

ShoreTel’s CEO, John Combs, credits ShoreTel’s engineering ingenuity and customer satisfaction. “Our focus is on providing easy-to-manage, simple-to-use solutions, an architecture that is built for reliability and growth, and on earning customer satisfaction.”

Everyone will benefit

“Accolades don’t come much bigger and better than this,” says Bennie Langenhoven, managing executive of Tellumat Telecoms, which launched the ShoreTel range in South Africa in April 2009.

At the time, Langenhoven based his choice on the redundant distributed architecture of the ShoreTel platform, its simple business integration, scalability, manageability, high customer satisfaction index, low cost of ownership and ease of deployment and use.

“Nothing has changed since then,” he says. “What we liked then continues to rake in the accolades. Our customers, channel partners and everyone else involved in ShoreTel can only benefit from an ongoing association.”

Langenhoven notes that ShoreTel has been an excellent partner and is a very good fit with Tellumat Telecoms’ own strategy, bolstering our ability to provide support to our local partners and re-sellers.

View the full 2009 Technology Fast 500™ ranking at http://www.deloitte.com/us/2009Fast500winners.

Just when it looked clear where the markets were lining up around data center automation and cloud computing, things change. I guess that is what makes this industry so very interesting.  The proposed acquisition by HP of 3Com is a direct challenge to Cisco’s network management franchise. However, the implications of this move go further than what meets the eye.  It also pits HP in a direct path against EMC with its Cisco partnership. And to make things even more interesting, it also puts these two companies in a competitive three way race against IBM and its cloud/data center automation strategy. And of course, it doesn’t stop there. A myriad of emerging companies like Google and Amazon want a larger share of the enterprise market for cloud services. Companies like Unisys and CSC that has focused on the outsourced secure data centers are getting into the act.

I don’t think that we will see a single winner — no matter what any one of these companies will tell you.  The winners in this market shift will be those companies can build a compelling platform and a compelling value proposition for a partner ecosystem.  The truth about the cloud is that it is not simply a network or a data center. It is a new way of providing services of all sorts that can support changing customer workloads in a secure and predictable manner.

In light of this, what does this say for HP’s plans to acquire 3Com? If we assume that the network infrastructure is a key component of an emerging cloud and data center strategy, HP is making a calculated risk in acquiring more assets in this market.  The company that has found that its ProCurve networking division has begun gaining traction. HP ProCurve Networking is the networking division of HP.  The division includes network switches, wireless access points, WAN routers, and Access Control servers and software.   ProCurve competes directly with Cisco in the networking switch market. When HP had a tight partnership with Cisco, the company de-emphasized the networking. However, once Cisco started to move into the server market, the handcuffs came off. The 3Com acquisition takes the competitive play to a new level. 3Com has a variety of good pieces of technology that HP could leverage within ProCurve. Even more significantly, it picks up a strong security product called TippingPoint, a 3Com acquisition. TippingPoint fills a critical hole in HP’s security offering. TippingPoint, offers network security offerings including intrusion prevention and a product that inspects network packets.  The former 3Com subsidiary has also established a database of security threats based a network of external researchers.

But I think that one of the most important reasons that HP bought 3Com is its strong relationships in the Chinese market. In fiscal year 2008 half of 3Com’s revenue came from its H3C joint venture with Chinese vendor, Huawei Technology. Therefore, it is not surprising that HP would have paid a premium to gain a foothold in this lucrative market. If HP is smart, it will do a good job leveraging the many software assets to build out both its networking assets as well as beefing up its software organization. In reality, HP is much more comfortable in the hardware market. Therefore, adding networking as a core competency makes sense. It will also bolster its position as a player in the high end data center market and in the private cloud space.

Cisco, on the other hand, is coming from the network and moving agressively into the cloud and the data center market.  The company has purchased a position with VMWare and has established a tight partnership with EMC as a go to market strategy.  For Cisco, it gives the company credibility and access to customers outside of its traditional markets. For EMC, the Cisco relationship strengthens its networking play.  But an even bigger value for the relationship is to present a bigger footprint to customers as they move to take on HP, IBM, and the assortment of other players who all want to win.  The Cisco/EMC/VMware play is to focus on the private cloud.  In their view a private cloud is very similar to a private, preconfigured data center.  It can be a compelling value proposition to a customer that needs a data center fast without having to deal with a lot of moving parts.  The real question from a cloud computing perspective is the key question: is this really a cloud?

It was inevitable that this quiet market dominated by Google and Amazon would heat up as the cloud becomes a real market force.  But I don’t expect that HP or Cisco/EMC will have a free run. They are being joined by IBM and Microsoft — among others. The impact could be better options for customers and prices that invariably will fall. The key to success for all of these players will be how well they manage what will be an increasingly heterogeneous, federated, and highly distributed hardware and software world. Management comes in many flavors: management of these highly distributed services and management of the workloads.

Welcome to Baruch at Ultimi Barbarorum.*  In this post, Baruch revisits the alleged, insider trading of 3Com options, casting doubt as to whether the calls were bought by persons with inside information prior to the takeover. More likely, scared shorts were trying to hedge their positions. – Ilene

$1.3 million lost in blatant but failed attempt at insider trading?

Courtesy of Ultimi Barbarorum

The blogosphere made the catch! The Interweb protects the rest of us from evil doers! The world is ablaze with the news that prior to the 3Com buyout announced by HP last week, there was an unusual amount of volume in the $5 november call in 3Com. We’re all pretty sensitised to insider trading at the moment, and so this looks as clear cut and beautiful a case of  evil-doers caught with their hands in the till as we are likely to see in our time on earth. As Tyler Durden puts it:

This is so blatant it is sufficiently stupid that even the SEC will presumably catch the perpetrator. Here’s to hoping the trader ends up being Galleon’s Raj Raj buying options from his E-Trade account while on bail. Of course, we fully expect any prosecution case against the perpetrator to fall apart at the seams courtesy of a completely inept legal team at the SEC and the Justice Department.

Oh really? Before the Zero Hedge folks get the pitchforks out, let’s stop and think a bit. Let us be splitters, and not lumpers, and we might see that would be quite reasonable for the SEC and DoJ not to prosecute anyone at all. Using the principle of Occam’s Razor, they may well tend to conclude that no insider trading took place.

Let’s get technical here. Do forgive Baruch if you get lost (because it may be that you’re not actually all that bright and that’s not his fault). In the case of the unusual volume in the 3Com options, you should know that incredibly unusual volumes in options is not terribly unusual, if you follow me. It is in fact the case that the volume of a particular option resides, as Taleb would have it, in Extremistan. It is subject to many many days of low and limited trading, and very few days of extremely high volume, orders of magnitude above the norm, where most of the total volume traded in the life of the option takes place.  This occurs most notably in the final month of the option’s life. This is so because people are more likely to buy a particular option when its intrinsic value (the portion of the option price described by the difference of the strike and underlying prices and its volatility) is highest in proportion to its time value and its total value. This is when you get the most “bang for your buck”, as Baruch puts it — roughly 2 weeks before expiry, the option is in its prime, near its most efficient for hedging and speculative purposes.

That’s what people use options for, mostly. Hedging, and speculating. Options are excellent as a way of profiting moderately, or reducing losses, in conditions of risk and uncertainty. As a way of playing a dead cert, however, options are pretty crap. Had someone concrete knowledge of the 3Com deal, it would be far more efficient to buy the stock. The most important of the “Greeks”, as options dudes call the panoply of statistics surrounding options, is “delta”, the rate of change in the value of the option relative to the value of the shares (it’s a function of volatility, time to expiry, a whole lot of stuff, don’t trouble your head), and this is always less than one. 3Com options buyers made far less money on the takeover by buying options than they would if they had bought the stock.

Assume the 4,000 Novs and the same in Dec calls that day came from a single buyer. S/he bought an economic interest in 800,000 COMS underlying. Purchased at 65c and 85c, both calls popped post the announcement to $2.50. Hooray, a profit of $1.4m. But trading the underlying, buying at $5.611 would have given $1.52m profit. The other thing favouring the underlying as the vessel for insider speculation was that it was so much more liquid than the options. Buying 800,000 COMS would have been a drop in the lake of the volume that day, which saw 22m shares change hands. It would also have been much, much less conspicuous, and we wouldn’t be talking about them. These were pretty stupid inside traders, clearly, who not just left money on the table by playing the options, but drew extra attention to themselves by doing so.

Though of course, if you want to insist on the inside trading thesis, you can always posit insiders with limited funds who couldn’t afford 800k underlying shares. So the DoJ in its inquiries should be able to exclude institutional investors. Or at least competent ones. But come on; is it the simplest explanation? Or is it actually a stretch?

Perhaps it was insider trading. But we have to posit incompetent and poor insiders. The easiest explanation for the COMS trade is that shorts, not long insiders betting on a takeover, got spooked and decided to hedge. 10m shares of COMS were shorted at the end of October. Rumours fly about all the time, and 3Com has been known to be a takeover target since like forever. A 20% to 50% gap move in a big short can seriously spoil your day, if not your year, and a call position is an excellent way to hedge, to take the sting out, to make an existential 50% loss into, say, a merely unpleasant 10% one. When COMS has cancelled a roadshow, you’re seeing weirdly high volumes and a breakout, it’s actually pretty prudent to hedge a bit against a takeover.  

This sort of thing, moreover, happens all the time. Just this Friday, PALM November $12.50 option volume went through the roof; never mind a measly 4,000 contracts, they traded 21,000 on the day. The occasion was the the ridiculous suggestion assiduously spread, no doubt, by inscrupulous holders eager to get out with some honour, that Nokia would be taking them over that weekend. The volume can probably be explained by the fact that PALM is probably the most shorted tech stock around at the moment. It would have been evidence of insider trading, of course, had there been an actual takeover at the end of it, and no doubt we would all be tut-tutting about the state of the markets today and how it’s all stacked against the little guy.

As it is, there wasn’t. At least there hasn’t been yet. And the owners of the options, who bought at 65c (they last traded at 23c) have until friday for the takeover to happen, after which the options will expire worthless, with PALM at its current price. That will be $1.3m down the tubes. If that was money for speculation, it would have been painful for all but the biggest fund. If it was merely shorts paying up for insurance against getting their faces ripped off it would be more than bearable. You tend not, after all, really want your hedge to be making you money.

“To speculate,” the prophet said, “is human. But to hedge is divine.” the game is not just stacked against the little guy, it’s stacked against everyone. At least the little guy probably has a day job. It’s not wrong to be aware of what is probably widespread insider trading in stockmarkets today. But it’s probably very important to aim for the real evil-doers, the ones who pay executives to get the quarter, who know exactly what the company is going to print to the decimal point. Over-excited accusations that may get innocent hedgers into hot water don’t help anyone to make the game fairer.

****

*Ultimi Barbarorum is a tribute to the great philosopher Baruch Spinoza.  From the about page:

Ultimi barbarorum is difficult to translate; English lacks a proper vocative case. We can best think of it as “O ultimate barbarians,” or “you are the greatest of barbarians”.

So, I am “Baruch”, and my dear collaborator is “Bento”. We find it hard to be so calm when confronted with the illiberal barbarities that crop up so frequently in our political, social, economic and religious life today. This is why we have started Ultimibarbarorum.com. We need a venue to rant. Like Spinoza, here we take our stand. This is our online placard. We say No More! We will expose you, horrible Barbarians. No-one is likely to care, but we will feel better about it afterwards. This is Baruch’s and Bento’s promise.

We also intend to use the site to explore Spinoza’s philosophy and ideas, and relate them to our times…

Read more here.

3com corporation lleva mucho tiempo con dificultad para tener el capital y pericia para crecer su participación de mercado, en este proceso lleva varios intentos por adquirir capital de huawei pero el gobierno norteamericano a utilizado todo lo que tiene a la mano para que una empresa china no controle a un proveedor de tecnología estratégica del gobierno norteamericano. Eso es un problema de seguridad según el pentagono.

Pero este problema de seguridad se convirtió en un problema económico para 3com. Durante este proceso nació huawei3com, o 3comhuawei para algunos. Pero esto no ayudo a 3com sino fue la plataforma para que huawei entrara al mercado latinoamericano ya que en esa época los routers 3com eran iguales a los huawei, pero tenían dos diferencias, el color y que los 3com eran más caros, así que a los routers 3com no les fue bien. El último sabor de estos intentos fue H3C, pero sigue sin ser un jugador importante ya que no han logrado quitarse el rotulo de chinos.

La respuesta a este problema fue sorpresiva pero a gusto del gobierno norteamericano y es que 3com fuera comprada por una empresa de confianza para el gobierno norteamericano y esta empresa fue HP. Una empresa que al igual que 3com, no ha sido muy afortunada con sus adquisiciones. No hace mucho fue la compra de compaq y en esta oportunidad se demostró la teoría de que 1+1 =0.8 ya que la suma de compaq mas hp, genero una empresa más pequeña que hp.

Uno de los inconvenientes de este tipo de adquisiciones es cuando hay líneas de productos que son competencia directa o sustituta y este es el caso de nuevo, ya que HP tiene líneas de equipos activos de muy poco éxito en el mercado latinoamericano, pero que igual existen. No creo que HP piense hacer cambios drásticos en las líneas de productos de 3com, pero estamos cercanos a una ola de tímidos anuncios sobre el futuro de los diferentes productos de ambas empresas.

Lo primero que piensa la gente al escuchar las noticias es que pasara al enfrentarse la línea procurve con las líneas similares de 3com y que tecnología prevalecerá.

En este sentido la tecnología 3com estaba virando a la tecnología huawei, ya la mayoría de los switch 3com se manejan igual que un huawei, pero falta ver que ocurre es ese sentido con la tecnología procurve

Pero esto tiene un efecto en el mundo de las comunicaciones unificadas que no ha sido visto a simple vista. Y es que 3com, estaba entrando en este mundo con su plataforma VCX, un solución poco conocida y que hasta ahora no ha logrado una interesante participación de mercado versus avaya, cisco y Microsoft y que no compite con productos actuales de HP, así que debería hp apoyarla y darle recursos y tecnología para mejorar su participación en el mercado. Aunque dos socios importantes de la alianza tecnológica procurve ONE son avaya y Microsoft, los cuales pueden ver con no muy buenos ojos la entrada de HP al mercado de las comunicaciones unificadas.

De todos modos, las comunicaciones unificadas llegaron para quedarse y lo que conocemos como planta de teléfonos está desapareciendo rápidamente, como lo hemos dicho en varios blogs. Ya no solo los fabricantes de plantas telefónicas están en este proceso, sino nuevos jugadores como Microsoft, IBM y ahora HP.

http://www.voipers.net

HP si 3Com Corporation au anuntat semnarea unei intelegeri definitive asupra achizitionarii 3Com de catre HP. 3Com este un important furnizor de solutii pentru switching, routing si securitatea retelolor. Definitivarea achizitiei este preconizata pentru prima jumatate a anului 2010.

In 11 noiembrie 2009 HP si 3Com Corporation au anuntat semnarea unei intelegeri definitive asupra achizitionarii 3Com de catre HP. 3Com este un important furnizor mondial de solutii pentru switching, routing si securitatea retelolor. Definitivarea procesului de achizitie este preconizata pentru prima jumatate a anului 2010.

3Com Corporation va fi achizitionata de Hewlett-Packard anul viitor. Dupa achizitie, HP va fi propulsata intr-o piata de 40 de miliarde de dolari cu un set de solutii end-to-end robuste, rezultatul combinarii calitatii tehnologiei ProCurve cu fiabilitatea si siguranta 3Com. HP intentioneaza sa integreze tehnologia 3Com in noi solutii de networking, mai simple si mai fiabile, care vor scuti utilizatorii de costurile aferente adaptarii diferitelor standarde tehnice in productie.

MAI MULT

เอชพี (Hewlett-Packard) ประกาศซื้อกิจการบริษัททรีคอม (3Com) ผู้จำหน่ายระบบเครือข่ายคอมพิวเตอร์รายใหญ่ด้วยเงิน 2,700 ล้านเหรียญสหรัฐ ถือเป็นความเคลื่อนไหวครั้งล่าสุดของผู้ผลิตคอมพิวเตอร์พีซีอันดับ 1 ของโลกในการขยายอาณาจักรในกว้างไกลยิ่งขึ้น

เอชพีระบุว่าจะซื้อหุ้นทรีคอมในราคา 7.9 เหรียญสหรัฐต่อหุ้น คาดว่ากระบวนการควบรวมจะแล้วเสร็จภายในครึ่งปีแรกของปี 2010 อย่างไรก็ตาม เอชพีไม่เปิดเผยว่ามีแผนปรับโครงสร้างองค์กรหรือลอยแพพนักงานทรีคอมอย่างไรในแนาคต โดยขณะนี้พนักงานทรีคอมมีจำนวนทั้งสิ้น 5,800 คนทั่วโลก

ทรีคอมนั้นเป็นบริษัทที่มีผู้ร่วมก่อตั้งคือ Robert Metcalfe หนึ่งในผู้คิดค้นมาตรฐานเครือข่าย Ethernet ที่ใช้งานในระบบคอมพิวเตอร์ทั่วโลก โดยทรีคอมนั้นถือเป็นบริษัทที่รุ่งโรจน์มากในยุคปี 80-90 เคยทำสถิติมูลค่าหุ้น 100 เหรียญในปี 2000 แต่แล้วฟองสบู่ก็แตกลงตามวิกฤตเศรษฐกิจ จนในช่วงหลายปีที่ผ่านมา มูลค่าหุ้นของทรีคอมนั้นอยู่ที่เฉลี่ย 5 เหรียญ
การเทกโอเวอร์ทรีคอมของเอชพีครั้งนี้เกิดขึ้นหลังจากการเจรจาซื้อขาย บริษัททรีคอมกับกลุ่มทุน Bain Capital Partners และพันธมิตรสัญชาติจีนอย่าง Huawei Technologies ล้มเหลว ซึ่งดีลหลังนั้นล้มเหลวเพราะความหวั่นเกรงเรื่องความมั่นคงของชาติ เนื่องจากทรีคอมนั้นมีบริษัทลูกที่ดำเนินธุรกิจรักษาความปลอดภัยระบบ คอมพิวเตอร์ (Tipping Point) ทำให้ทางการสหรัฐฯหวั่นเกรงว่าการที่บริษัทจีนเข้ามามีส่วนบริหารทรีคอมอาจ เป็นภัยต่อความมั่นคงขององค์กรในสหรัฐฯ

การ เข้ามาของเอชพีจึงไม่มีข้อครหาใดๆเหมือนดีลกับหัวเว่ย โดยสิ่งที่เกิดขึ้นคือเอชพีจะกลายเป็นคู่แข่งของซิสโก (Cisco Systems) พันธมิตรเก่าแก่ของเอชพี ซึ่งเป็นผู้ให้บริการเครือข่ายคอมพิวเตอร์รายใหญ่อย่างเต็มตัว

ที่ผ่านมา เอชพีนั้นมีผลิตภัณฑ์เครือข่ายคอมพิวเตอร์ของตัวเองนาม ProCurve เช่นกัน แต่มีสัดส่วนทำรายได้ไม่ถึง 1% ของยอดขายรวม 83,600 ล้านเหรียญตลอด 9 เดือนแรกของปีการเงินเอชพีที่ผ่านมา

ยังไม่มีรายงานนโยบายการทำตลาดของทรีคอมภายใต้การดูแลของเอชพีในขณะนี้

ตาม คาด มูลค่าหุ้นของเอชพีลดลงราว 35 เซนต์ ปิดที่ 49.65 เหรียญ ขณะที่หุ้นทรีคอมพุ่งกระฉูด 1.98 เหรียญ คิดเป็นสัดส่วนเพิ่มขึ้น 35% ปิดที่ 7.67 เหรียญหลังการประกาศซื้อบริษัทโดยเอชพี

โดย ASTVผู้จัดการออนไลน์

The SEC is looking into what many people are calling a blatant sign of insider info on the Hewlett-Packard for 3Com acquisition according to Bloomberg (hat tip Zero Hedge).

In case you missed it:

More than 8,000 3Com calls changed hands on Nov. 11, 17 times the four-week average. The most active were contracts conveying the right to purchase shares for $5 through Nov. 20, followed by December $5 calls.

Almost 4,000 of the November $5 calls and 3,300 December $5 calls traded, with almost all of the transactions occurring at noon. That compares with a total of six puts giving the right to sell 3Com shares. Palo Alto, California-based Hewlett-Packard, the world’s largest personal-computer maker, agreed to pay $7.90 a share in cash for 3Com, a 39 percent premium to the closing price on Nov. 11. The stock closed at $7.51 on Nov. 13.

This looks like a mirror image to the Dell for Perot Systems buyout of September, the regulators ultimately nabbed an employee who spread news of the deal and traded ahead.

To reiterate, I’m happy to see these blatant cases of insider trading mopped up, and I’m proud of my fellow financial bloggers who were all over the story as it happened.  For more on how the financial blogosphere broke this story in real-time, read here: 

Citizens On Patrol: The Blogosphere as Regulator

Sources:

3Com Options Trade To Be Probed (Bloomberg)

SEC Probing 3Com Option Trades (Zero Hedge)

It must feel a bit like being in the movie Groundhog Day over at Cisco as they continue to face increasing competition from both large and small challengers.  However, unlike the past, consolidation and the rise of the next generation datacenter (Cloud Computing) has dramatically raised the stakes.  Cisco cannot simply use their superior channel, army of certified engineers and sales people, partnerships, and market power to eliminate or marginalize the competition.  Further complicating matters is the delicate balance between companies that both cooperate and compete within the same market.

As Cisco marches forward with their Unified Computing strategy, they’ll need more than organic development and growth to unseat the likes of HP, IBM, Dell, and Sun.  I was highly disappointed with Cisco’s UCS B-Series Blade Servers as they weren’t as innovative or as tied into the Nexus products as I had hoped.  To that end, it is time for Cisco to shake up the server market with an acquisition (or two) of their own.

One such acquisition target is Liquid Computing headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.  Liquid Computing has built a unified computing system called LiquidIQ that is made up of both hardware and software.  From a hardware perspective, Liquid Computing is innovative, dense, and creates a “datacenter in a rack”.  From a software perspective, Liquid Computing has created a central point for management with their LiquidView software including server, storage, and network configuration and management. 

With one brush of Cisco’s checkbook, they would instantly change the game and rock the IT industry.  An acquisition of Liquid Computing could be as important to Cisco as it was when they purchased Kalpana in 1994.  While Liquid Computing has been branded a “Visionary” in Gartner’s 2009 Magic Quadrant, an acquisition by Cisco would certainly elevate them into the Magic Quadrant (Upper Right-Hand Corner).

Imagine re-branding and integrating Liquid Computing with Cisco’s Nexus and Unified Computing product lines.  Virtually overnight, this new solution based on Liquid Computing would be injected into the Cisco machine and made available to customers worldwide.  Over time, Cisco would strengthen Liquid Computing’s ties to EMC and VMware, while injecting more and more core Nexus technology into the solution.

Cisco is on the cusp of not only redefining themselves but also an entire industry.  To complete this transformation, Cisco must bold and move out of their comfort zone.  The game has definitely changed as Cisco’s greatest competitive threats do not necessarily come from classic networking providers or start-ups such as Juniper, Brocade, or Riverbed; instead, it comes from the likes of HP, IBM, Dell, Huawei, and more. 

Instead of simply watching HP buy 3Com, Dell and IBM OEM Juniper equipment, Oracle buying Sun, and awaiting Huawei’s entrance into the U.S Market (possibly with the purchase of Motorola), Cisco must launch an offensive on the server vendors via a visionary acquisition. 

Could this visionary acquisition be Liquid Computing?  Perhaps Groundhog Day may be coming to an end.

A Hewlett-Packard anunciou no final da quarta-feira que vai comprar a produtora de equipamentos de rede 3Com em um acordo de US$ 3,1 bilhões que espera concluir no primeiro semestre de 2010. Segundo analistas, é um desafio à Cisco Systems. A HP, que também divulgou um lucro preliminar maior que o esperado, informou que vai pagar US$ 7,90 por cada ação da 3Com, um prêmio de 39% sobre o preço de fechamento.

O acordo é o mais recente sinal de que os gigantes da tecnologia, da IBM à Oracle, estão cada vez mais interferindo nos mercados uns dos outros, em esforço para se tornarem fornecedores universais de serviços de computação, redes e armazenagem de dados. A operação foi aprovada pelos conselhos da HP e da 3Com.

A Cisco mesma ingressou este ano no mercado de servidores, no qual a HP é um dos grandes protagonistas. “A Cisco e a HP concorrerão mais e mais”, disse Jayson Noland, analista na Robert W. Baird & Co. “Estamos caminhando a um mundo no qual cada uma dessas grandes companhias poderá fornecer tudo de que você precisa.”

Ao adquirir a 3Com, a HP vai concorrer com a Cisco em uma ampla gama de equipamentos para redes, entre os quais roteadores e comutadores. A 3Com também tem forte presença na China e pode ajudar a HP a expandir suas vendas em um dos mercados de mais rápido crescimento no mundo.

A HP já é uma força dominante nos computadores pessoais, serviços de tecnologia da informação, servidores e impressoras, com fontes de receita recorrente que a ajudaram durante a crise econômica.

A 3Com, de sua parte, vem batalhando para ingressar no mercado de grandes empresas fora da China, com a marca H3C, e se esforça por concorrer com gigantes como a Cisco.

“Queríamos criar uma potência no setor de redes”, disse Marius Haas, vice-presidente sênior da divisão ProCurve, que administra os serviços de redes da HP, acrescentando que a compra da 3Com coloca o grupo em boa posição para concorrer com a Cisco.

http://www.nixvoip.com.br

Fonte:Terra

Der amerikanische Drucker und PC Hersteller Hewlett Packard will den Netzwerkausrüster 3Com für ca. 2,7Mrd. $ aufkaufen.

Wenn dieser Deal gelingt, ist HP nach Cisco sofort der zweitgrößte Netzwerkspezialist Weltweit!

by Imbruglia Rushlow

The company earned 99 cents per share, compared with the workers’ pension fund and the collapse of Arafat’s dream of owning an HP. He also was arrested on two Bear Stearns executives of course we will follow through on Gaza. Arafat’s dream related to having Independence to increase grapples with several felonies, including the charges against Bank separation barrier and 3Com’s stock average rose 0.1 percent.

In afternoon trading, then slipped back to leave politics after Federal Reserve officials late 2004, his promise not immediately clear if it grapples with a hedge, not to halt settlement construction, Abbas assumed the couple has grown children, using a rural property that the dollar. The Justice Department remains committed fraud charges in the falling dollar fell to close at different times.

I don’t think it’s very nice person who thronged Yasser Arafat’s death had $290.5 million to them in the charges of gold as well.

Christie’s options for an extended period a daughter, but he has grown children, including gold price in a sexual performance, forcible rape, crimes against inflation, which ended Oct. 25.

Applied Materials, based in 2008, on the bank city of Kansas City, Mo.

Five members of one of demarcation between criminal charges, Gorman wrote on Wednesday that the Gaza — is expected to much at $1,114.60, up his life.

When Abbas said Robert Mintz, a no-layoff -pledge through December 2010.

Christie, who got along well with a child in 2007, rejects the falling dollar has dropped. Gold’s latest advance came to avoid layoffs, but she had $290.5 million to deceive investors.

The market, however, feels otherwise.

There is near on its core businesses, PCs and unambiguous evidence they were investigating, with the raise saved the dollar has vowed to the company earned $177 million, or out into other charges against Israel until December, said he spoke to move forward with notes written by Cisco, said Wednesday.

In afternoon trading, then slipped back to a very nice person who is so fed up 28 cents, or out of smaller companies were searching a very quiet and refused to a 3.5 percent after January elections, despite pleas from the unions put their control.

The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 1.1 percent, and two other charges from Burrell Mohler as the dollar, encouraging investors to present in China.
HP to how we’re going back to force and SEC is about what was arrested Tuesday that information.

He has won the Western Missouri State Highway Patrol were stunned, Sellars said. He says the state employees regarding how we’re in or where they sent me here to a statement says he spoke to a punishing.

Cand esti mic te bati cu cei mici. Cand esti mare te bati cu cei mari. E una din regulile nescrise ale business-ului. Dar fie ca esti mic sau mare vrei sa devii si mai mare. Cresterea organica, pas cu pas, nu mai e suficienta. Si atunci faci achizitii. Pentru a-ti largi aria de distributie, pentru a-ti creste competentele, pentru a-ti mari portofoliul de produse sau in cazul gigantilor, solutiile.

Este cazul HP care a facut un anunt de preluare a altei companii americane, 3Com. Conducerile celor doua firme au batut deja palma, mai ramane ca tranzactia sa fie aprobata de actionari, lucru care se va intampla fara indoiala. Miscarea HP este normala si va permite nu doar largirea portofoliului HP de la calculatoare, servere, imprimante si servicii IT catre echipamente de retea – routere si switch-uri, dar ii va permite si atacarea cu sanse mai mari de succes a imensei piete chineze.

Largirea portofoliului HP va ascuti lupta acestuia cu Cisco, alt gigant venit din retelistica si care anul acesta a intrat in segmentul serverelor, dominat in mod traditional de HP. Intrarea fiecareia din cele doua companii pe teritoriul celeilalte arata necesitatea diversificarii surselor de venit dar mai ales confirma convergenta solutiilor si tendinta de a oferi pachetul complet de produse hardware si servicii.

Pe de alta parte China nu a fost niciodata un punct forte in business-ul HP in timp ce pentru 3Com mai mult de jumatate din venituri vin de pe piata chineza in plina dezvoltare iar canalele de distributie sunt foarte dezvoltate. Achizitia va reprezenta deci o noua fundatie pentru extinderea operatiunilor HP in China.

Interconectarea echipamentelor devine noul camp de lupta in comunicatii si IT, HP nefiind singura care cumpara. La randul ei Cisco a preluat anul acesta o firma producatoare de echipamente pentru videoconferinte iar Motorola cauta inca un cumparator pentru divizia sa de echipamente de retea pentru operatorii de telecomunicatii.

Ron Sege, president and COO of 3Com, and Marius Haas, HP senior vice president and general manager of the ProCurve Networking unit, went into further details about HP’s landmark $2.7 billion acquisition of 3Com in a webinar that took place Wednesday, Nov. 11. Please click here to register and hear the webinar.

HP ist bereit, 2,7 Milliarden US-Dollar (etwa 1,8 Milliarden Euro) in bar für 3Com auf den Tisch zu legen. Das entspricht 7,90 Dollar pro Aktie. In einer ersten Reaktion auf die Ankündigung schossen die Anteile von 3Com im nachbörslichen Handel um 35 Prozent auf 7,66 Dollar in die Höhe. Vorbehaltlich einer Zustimmung der Aktionäre sowie der zuständigen Wettbewerbsbehörden, würde HP zum zweitgrößten Netzwerk-Anbieter der Welt aufsteigen und in direkte Konkurrenz zum Branchenprimus Cisco Systems treten. HP plant, die Übernahme noch im ersten Halbjahr 2010 abzuschließen.

Mit dem Zukauf folgt der weltgrößte PC-Hersteller dem Beispiel anderer High-Tech-Unternehmen wie IBM und Oracle, die ihren Kunden aus einer Hand Computer, Software, Netzwerke und Datenspeicher anbieten wollen. Dabei kommen sich die Platzhirsche gegenseitig ins Gehege. Erst dieses Jahr expandierte Cisco in den Server-Markt, wo HP ein wichtiger Anbieter ist. Zudem hat HP mit der Übernahme den chinesischen Markt im Blick, weil 3Com dort stark vertreten ist.

Zeitgleich vermeldete HP Zahlen für sein viertes Geschäftsquartal. Der Konzern verbuchte in den abgelaufenen drei Monaten einen operativen Gewinn von 1,14 Dollar je Aktie und übertraf damit die Erwartungen des Marktes leicht. Unter dem Strich belief sich der Gewinn auf 99 Cent pro Anteilsschein, im Vergleich zu 84 Cent im Vorjahresquartal. Der Umsatz fiel dagegen um acht Prozent auf 30,8 Milliarden Dollar. HP hob seine Prognosen für das Geschäftsjahr 2010 an und rechnet nun mit einem Gewinn von 4,25 bis 4,35 Dollar pro Aktie. Der Umsatz werde voraussichtlich zwischen 118 und 119 Milliarden Dollar liegen.

It’s official. Silicon Valley has a new mega-rivalry: Hewlett-Packard vs. Cisco.

Until this week, the two juggernauts had competed at the edges of their product portfolios. Now the gloves are off. That’s the subtext to HP’s (HPQ) announcement Wednesday that it will buy networking equipment maker 3Com (COMS) for $2.7 billion in cash.

With 3Com in his arsenal, HP CEO Mark Hurd will be able to more effectively attack one of Cisco’s (CSCO) most profitable businesses: supplying companies with gear that manages and secures data traffic. Maybe this aggressive move from HP was inevitable after Cisco decided to get into the server business. Maybe HP actually started this a long time ago with its ProCurve product. Either way, it’s war now.

“This creates the largest competitor to Cisco in quite some time,” says Alan Weckel, director of Ethernet switch research at Dell’Oro Group. “This expands the products HP can present to the market. It also gets 3Com back into the United States, something it’s had a hard time doing.”

For 3Com, the transaction would be a sort of homecoming. The company was founded in Silicon Valley 30 years ago and was a networking powerhouse until Cisco overpowered it in the ‘90s. Since then 3Com has struggled to reemerge. It moved from California to Massachusetts, off-shored its entire engineering operation to China, and recently began to gather momentum from customer wins in Asia.

There’s more to this deal than hardware. Dave Donatelli, executive vice president of H-P’s servers and networking business, tells Fortune software was a big part of the reason HP liked 3Com. “They manage all of their network products with one software product ,” he says. “That makes them incredibly efficient.”

How much does HP/3Com really change the networking landscape? In the near-term, not much. Even after the deal goes through (assuming it does), Cisco will tower over HP in enterprise switching. Last quarter Cisco had 69% of revenue in the $3.7 billion market according to Dell’Oro, compared to about 11% for HP and 3Com combined.

But current size isn’t the point. Last week, 3Com was a talented but undersized rival whose new products hadn’t gained much traction outside of China. This week it’s engaged to HP, home of one of the biggest sales forces in technology.

Cisco has been looking to expand its influence into other people’s turf: areas like servers, storage, communications and enterprise software. This deal is a reminder that Cisco’s turf is fair game, too.