3Com picks up telephony company

By Jim Duffy
Network World Fusion, 02/23/99

3Com yesterday announced a definitive agreement to acquire Andover, Mass.-based NBX, a developer of network-based telephony systems that integrate voice and data over small business LANs and WANs.

The transaction is valued at approximately $90 million in cash and the assumption of stock options, and will be accounted for as a purchase.

According to 3Com's estimates, the worldwide market for LAN telephony will be approximately $5 billion by 2003 with more than two-thirds of the sales going to small and mid-sized enterprises.

An important element of the acquisition is the immediate development of a new distribution and U.S. sales channel for LAN telephony products, 3Com says. NBX's sales force will be an important channel for all of 3Com's existing and upcoming voice products.

Over the past few months 3Com has made three strategic telephony announcements.

3Com and Siemens AG announced a joint venture in December 1998 to develop LAN telephony and multimedia products. The two companies have already delivered their first product, the SuperStack II PBX 1000. The 3Com-Siemens joint venture is focused on opportunities in mid-sized and large enterprises.

The Pathbuilder S200 voice access switch, announced in October 1998, enables customers to add voice to existing, router-based wide-area data networks.

Voice over IP capabilities have been added to 3Com's Total Control remote access concentrator.

Meanwhile, 3Com's competitors have not been standing pat. Cisco last year bought network PBX vendor Selsius, a competitor of NBX.

NBX has 90 employees, all of which will be retained by 3Com, a 3Com spokeswoman said.

3Com has not determined whether NBX will remain in Andover or if it will be consolidated into other 3Com facilities, two of which are in Boxboro and Southboro, Mass., the spokeswoman said.

The transaction is expected to close in March.