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The 3Com Saga

Posted by timothy on from the ups-n-downs dept.

prostoalex writes "A flashback to 5 years ago reveals 3Com as a global multi-billion dollar company, respected and revered around the world. Today Bob Metcalfe's creation is a money-losing $2 billion dollar operation trying to find its niche. The 3Com Saga from Network World magazine takes a look at the history of 3Com Corp."

9 of 258 comments (clear)

  1. Re:In my book by Bilestoad · · Score: 5, Funny

    It is a great shame that Metcalfe has resorted to trolling in order to get people to take notice of him these days:

    http://archive.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/99/ 06 /21/990621opmetcalfe.xml

    Sez Bob: "The Open Source Movement's ideology is utopian balderdash. And Linux is 30-year-old technology."

    Just like ethernet...

  2. Re:Reap what you sow by BrianMarshall · · Score: 3, Funny
    Paying other companies to develop products for you to put your name on... this is a business model that can be duplicated by any business that has (or can raise) the money.

    It sort of reminds me of paying people to build buildings for you to put your name on... If they took it one step further and used other people's money, they could be the Donald Trump of electronics.

    --
    "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro" -- HST
  3. Sue IBM by bstadil · · Score: 4, Funny
    I guess in a not too distant future they will file a multi billion lawsuit against IBM

    We all know that inabiliity to run your own business is always IBM's fault.

    --
    Help fight continental drift.
  4. Too bad they're not owned by CNET by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Then it would be 3com.com.com

    1. Re:Too bad they're not owned by CNET by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      They wouldn't need the "3".
      com.com.com.
      Sounds like a cheap brazilian porn movie.

  5. Curse of the Stadium Name Buyers ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    PSI, Enron, 3Com. Seem like buying the name to a stadium is the kiss of death. Some lame ass marketing guy buys the rights to his favorite team's stadium. Oh well. It's the 49ers. They deserve to associated with losers.

  6. Linux source says: by Cerilus · · Score: 4, Funny
    /* 3c501.c: A 3Com 3c501 Ethernet driver for Linux. */
    /*
    Written 1992,1993,1994 Donald Becker
    ...
    This is a device driver for the 3Com Etherlink 3c501.
    Do not purchase this card, even as a joke. It's performance is horrible,
    and it breaks in many ways.
    ...
    * Some documentation is available from 3Com. Due to the boards age
    * standard responses when you ask for this will range from 'be serious'
    * to 'give it to a museum'. The documentation is incomplete and mostly
    * of historical interest anyway.
    *
    Ahh, the good ole days. 3C501s in everything, with a 3C503 in your 'big' boxes.

  7. Re:have you even heard *anything* about 3com latel by FRiC · · Score: 2, Funny


    Strangely enough, I had a similar conversation just yesterday. We have some really old industrial computers at work that still run DOS and can't be upgraded because they're running specialized software. We need to get the data into our servers quickly so we were installing D-Link cards into them, and one of the guys remarked, "Shouldn't we be using 3Com cards since these computers are like 10 years old?"

  8. US Robotics w/ groundbreaking product July 16th by XavierItzmann · · Score: 3, Funny

    These guys are launching the NS-5 in July.

    Positronic CPU with over 1TB. Free lifetime OS updates, with instantaneous wireless downloads! They have interviews with the top designers/execs.
    You can even build your own!

    http://www.irobotnow.com/en_us/main.html

    I would not be too concerned about the future of the U.S. Robotics company.

    --
    The next pasture is always greener