After finding no concerns about antitrust issues, The European Commission gave HP approval to buy networking equipment maker 3Com. The move, according to eWeek, will bolster HP’s ProCurve networking business and add to its converged data center solutions capabilities in its growing competition with the likes of IBM, Cisco, Dell and Oracle.
“HP officials are looking to 3Com to help it build out its ProCurve networking business as it looks to increase its competition with Cisco Systems and to grow its capabilities in the increasingly competitive push for converged data center solutions.
“Before the deal was announced in November, industry research firm The Yankee Group estimated that Cisco owned about 52 percent of the $40 billion networking market, with HP at 11 percent and 3Com at 9 percent. With 3Com under its wing, HP is now a competitor with about 20 percent of the market.
“HP officials expect to close the deal in the second quarter.”
