There is news all over on HP’s acquisition of 3com. WSJ is one example.

H-P to Acquire 3Com for $2.7 Billion

By JUSTIN SCHECK

Hewlett-Packard Co. said it agreed to buy networking-gear maker 3Com Corp. for $2.7 billion in cash, the latest move by H-P to bulk up its product line amid a broader push by the few remaining technology giants to turn themselves into one-stop shops for corporate customers.

Mark Hurd

The Palo Alto, Calif., company—the world's largest tech company by revenue—also preannounced positive fiscal fourth quarter results. It posted an 11% jump in operating earnings and an 8% decline in revenue from a year ago, beating analyst estimates. In a sign the tech industry is leaving the recession behind, H-P also raised its revenue forecast for the new fiscal year.

By buying 3Com, a onetime leading tech company that has fallen on tougher times this decade, H-P is aiming to goose its growth. The move also puts H-P more squarely on the turf of Cisco Systems Inc.

David Donatelli, H-P's vice president in charge of the corporate-computer division, said 3Com has a better set of networking products for large corporate clients than H-P currently sells and a market share of more than 30% in the China networking market. With the deal, Mr. Donatelli said, "we get industry-leading products."

Drilling into the actual HP press release, I found the green, energy-efficient angle most miss. The following is a quote from Bob Mao, CEO of 3Com

3Com’s networking products are based on a modern architecture which has been designed to offer better performance, require less power and eliminate administrative complexity when compared against current network offerings

HP is going to deploy the 3Com solution company wide, and you can bet the results if good will be in a future HP case study.

“We are confident that we can run our entire global business of 300,000-plus employees, including our next-generation data centers, entirely on the new HP networking solutions,” said Randy Mott, executive vice president and chief information officer, HP. “Based on our experience and extensive testing of 3Com’s products, we are planning to undertake a global rollout within HP as soon as possible after the completion of the acquisition.”