Hub and multifunction network switching systems builder Chipcom Corp is bes’ friends with IBM Corp and on excellent terms with Digital Equipment Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co – but 3Com Corp is fleeter of foot and has nipped in to win the hand of the Southborough, Massachusetts company, which has agreed to be acquired for about $775m in 3Com shares. 3Com is offering 0.53 of a pre-split share per Chipcom share out, and reckons the buy will make it a formidable competitor, combining 3Com’s position in stackable systems and backbone switching with Chipcom’s leadership in chassis-based multifunction intelligent switching systems. 3Com squared the takeover with IBM before it popped the question, and has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Networking Hardware Division of IBM to establish a wide range of reciprocal remarketing and OEM agreements. Both parties agree to continue the OEM agreements between IBM and Chipcom, and the pact under which IBM resells 3Com products for the PowerPC Series is expanded, and 3Com will expand the range of IBM products it currently carries under OEM agreements. Chipcom currently provides IBM with the ONcore/IBM 8250 hub, the ONline/IBM 8260 chassis, which takes IBM Asynchronous Transfer Mode and Token Ring implementations, and IBM will also resell 3Com Ethernet and Fast Ethernet adaptors and products incorporating 3Com Ethernet and Fast Ethernet chip sets. 3Com will resell IBM ATM-25 and Token Ring adaptors, and other reciprocal agreements are under discussion.On completion, Chipcom will become a division of 3Com and its engineering, marketing and manufacturing will continue at its Southborough headquarters. It did sales of $268m in 1994, and $158m in first half 1995.
