3Com gets edge in Huawei joint venture

Last time, we looked at the newest switch from 3Com, one that came both from 3Com’s acquisition of TippingPoint and 3Com’s joint venture with Huawei Technologies. Today, 3Com is announcing that it is now the majority owner of the Huawei-3Com joint venture.

The announcement comes on the heels of the hiring of a new president and CEO. R. Scott Murray will fill both roles, taking over from Bruce Claflin.

Network World reported that Claflin was a driving force behind 3Com’s pullout from the large enterprise switching and routing market in 2000. Since that time, the company has crept back in, mainly through the partnership with Huawei. So, becoming majority owner of the joint venture with Huawei is in a sense a way for the company to come full circle.

The latest product out of that joint venture was the TippingPoint M60 that we discussed last time. This switch takes the high-speed switching technology of Huawei and marries it with the intrusion-prevention capabilities developed by TippingPoint.

3Com points out that the H-3C joint venture has 31% market share in China as of the third quarter of last year, with revenue at $111 million in that quarter.

Becoming the majority owner of the joint venture required 3Com to purchase just 2% of the interest in the company from Huawei, amounting to $28 million. But the move is significant in that it shows 3Com sees the Chinese market’s potential for growth – and as that market grows, 3Com stands to gain from being a bridge between China and the United States.