COMs has a winner, they don't want to talk about it the palm pilot-- this may be helpful-
3Com
Adam Lashinsky (7/10)
In a chat with San Jose Mercury News columnist Adam Lashinsky, Donna Dubinsky, departing chief of Palm Computing, strongly hints that shares of parent company 3Com (COMS:Nasdaq) do not fully reflect the value of its fast-growing handheld computing subsidiary. Shipments of the PalmPilot personal organizer have risen to 1.2 million last year from 360,000 in 1996, but 3Com has been "stingy about discussing" the dollar figures attached to that growth.
Dubinsky and Palm founder Jeff Hawkins plan to start a company that will market consumer devices using the Palm operating software. She told Lashinsky that "3Com has a tremendously undervalued asset" in Palm Computing. "I guess since we're not disclosing numbers, that's understandable," she added.
With retail prices ranging from $150 to $400, and with anticipated sales this year of 2 million units, Lashinsky figures the PalmPilot "clearly is racking up revenues in the range of hundreds of millions of dollars." 3Com's stock, at 29, is down nearly half from last fall's levels. "If 3Com started being more specific about Palm, perhaps it could win some respect for its stock," says Lashinsky.
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