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Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe co-founded 3Com in 1979, and now that company is about to be acquired 30 years later by HP.
I caught up with Metcalfe, now a general partner with Polaris Ventures, briefly via BlackBerry to get his thoughts.
On HP buying 3Com:
3Com grew in the shadow of HP, always asking what would Bill [Hewlett] and Dave [Packard] do. The joke was that 3Com was the best of Xerox technology and HP marketing. Best wishes to 3Com and HP,
On 3Com’s legacy as an independent company:
After leaving Xerox PARC, I founded 3Com on June 4, 1979. We were a dot-com before the dots, and I am what in Silicon Valley they call "old money." (Click here for a brief history of 3Com.)
3Com's goal was computer communication compatibility -- 3Com -- and our first three chosen standards, then controversial, were Ethernet, TCP/IP, and Unix. 3Com shipped the first commercial version of TCP/IP for Unix in 1980 and the first PC Ethernet in 1982. We went three for three.
I was just in Marlborough to celebrate 3Com's recent 30th anniversary. Exhilarating.
On whether he still has a stake in 3Com:
I retired from 3Com in 1990 and sold all my shares soon thereafter to create a blind trust for my 1990s career in high-tech
punditry. Today I own a few shares for old times’ sake, so I won't be seeing much of the $2.7B.
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Comments (2)
headline vs articleBy Anonymous on November 12, 2009, 9:43 amWhat a cheesy article. There is no "Metcalfe take" here. Hardly more than 'no comment'. Waste of screen space.
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I am from Mexico, I made an define search of QUICK TAKE:By Anonymous on November 23, 2009, 7:59 pmQuick take: In many states, there is a specific procedure that allows the government to deposit with the court the amount it thinks the property is worth and then...
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