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Technology Stocks : 3Com Corporation (COMS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mr.mark who wrote (36755)	12/2/1999 1:49:00 PM
From: Mehrdad Arya	Respond to of 45548

If EB had anything to do with the success of the Palm and its current leadership then I think he is deserving of accolades. Visionaries in most cases are not the best of businessmen, but they can, given their wherewithal and position in a company, lead the company into unchartered waters, that can be perilous or very rewarding. If the Palm ever becomes as successful as some pundits have predicted, I am sure he will be showered with more credit than criticism. I feel the higher court of history will favor EB. This is just my MHO.

To: mr.mark who wrote (36755)	12/2/1999 2:21:00 PM
From: Bruce L	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 45548

Gary & Mark: Re: Eric B. I'll stand up again and say that I disagree. No, he is not charismatic, but I find it incredible after the many interviews of his that I have read for you to say he is not articulate. And yes, I believe he is a visionary. The Palm Pilot has always been his personal "baby." A year ago when he gave up operating control/reporting of all parts of the company, the exceptions were the Palm and technical/scientific development. The latter accounts IMO for the record number of patents that COMS holds. Gary says that Eric doesn't attract top notch employees. I disagree again. It's difficult to prove objectively one way or the other, but I would point out that consistently over the years COMS has been voted by employees as the top one or two places to work in the country. And he did have for a time Donna Dubinski and still has Bruce C. He was the first CEO (that I heard) to emphasize "convergence" of voice and data. This was at least two years ago. He partnered with Siemens for a while to develop the PBX/NBX telephone system. According to reports I have read there is tremendous positive response to this from company and government entities and it is likely to be a huge product in the future. As well as being a magnificent hook/lure for selling the company's other networking products. By contrast to CSCO which tries to do everything "in house",Eric has emphasized "partnering." MSFT, HWP, IBM, SUNW, SONY, and QCOM all come to mind. The logical conclusion is that other executives trust Eric, which is no mean achievement. Speaking of trust, COMS has consistently been rated by networking re-sellers as their favorite "partner." This is why COMS is so strong in the enterprise small to middle market. In brief, I believe that the "noise" that people make about Eric's qualities as a leader are really nothing more than unhappiness with COMS' stock price over the past 2 years. To my mind, this is superficial. It fully explains the cheap superficial attacks on Eric that we see from Captain Jack. Some on this thread have compared COMS to QCOM and I think the comparison is apt. For years QCOM lanquished undiscovered by the "street" and on the QCOM thread you saw similar attacks on their management. Those attacks were unfair then just as -I believe - they will be recognized as unfair when COMS gets to $100 + per share. Bruce