Mid-December has us not only
dusting off Christmas stockings and displaying Jewish
menorahs, but it is also the time of year where our companies are
gearing up to complete the current quarter. At
this point, anyone would think that all announcements of mergers and
acquisitions have made it all the way to the published press before we
all ring in the New Year.
Well, let�s now consider said companies that put in halt the last quarter result analysis to be
able to end the year with a big bang.
3com decided to end the year just
like that. The company announced that it has agreed to acquire IPS
vendor TippingPoint Technologies Inc. for $430 million in cash.
The deal, valued in a close
to a half a billion dollars, will surely position 3com amongst the ranks
of Cisco,
Juniper and other popular vendors in our industry. This
acquisition will definitely beef up the company�s security for features
like VoIP and other IP-based services. The networks system provider said
its cash offer of $47 per share would mean a 13 percent premium over
TippingPoint's closing price of $41.66 at the end of last week. The
final amount of $430 million bundles in closing costs and assumed
options. 3Com and TippingPoint plan to close the purchase in its fiscal
third quarter ending in February 2005 and the deal is subject to
regulatory and other conditions.
3com was mostly interested
in, and tightly grabbing onto the TippingPoint's line of "intrusion
protection" security products, which will aid 3com�s VoIP and other
IP-based offerings. 3com�s acquisition of Austin, TX-based TippingPoint
will add on about 125 employees to 3com�s roster, and will be lead by
its CEO Kip McClanahan. TippingPoint has posted revenues of $5.7
million. Combined revenues are promising at a generated $698.9 million
in revenue in its latest fiscal year, which ended in May for 3com and
TippingPoint�s $5.7 million.
Johanne Torres is contributing editor for TMCnet.com and Internet Telephony magazine. Previously, she was
assistant editor for EContent magazine in Connecticut. She
can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] |
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