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

To: Ken D who wrote (28258)	2/24/1999 10:38:00 AM
From: Moonray	Respond to of 45548

More: 3Com to buy Bay State LAN phone system developer The Boston Globe - Posted at 7:06 p.m. PST Monday, February 22, 1999 BOSTON -- 3Com Corp. says it will acquire NBX Corp., an Andover developer of telephone systems that run on local area networks, for $90 million in cash. The deal will enable 2 1/2-year-old NBX to expand the marketing and sales of its systems with 3Com's extensive product distribution capabilities. Since it allows voice and data to be transmitted through the same wires, the NBX system can significantly reduce companies' costs by eliminating the need for separate telephone and computer system lines. Executives at 3Com say the market for local area network telephone systems is rapidly expanding. ''The local area network telephone market space is growing 80 percent a year and will generate sales of $5 billion by 2003 and our acquistion of NBX gets us a market leader,'' said Edgar Masri, senior vice president and general manager of 3Com's enterprise business unit based in Southborough. Monday's announcement represents 3Com's first acquisition in Massachusetts in nearly three years. The company acquired Chipcom Inc. of Southborough and several other companies in Greater Boston over the past six years. Masri said 3Com does not expect to lay off any of NBX's 87 employees, although some may be offered jobs at the company's new East Coast headquarters in Marlborough, which will be formally opened next month. 3Com currently employs more than 1,000 people in Massachusetts. NBX, which received $16.5 million from four venture capital funds, will become part of 3Com's enterprise business unit. Daniel Massiello, who joined the fledgling company in February 1997 as president and chief executive will now report to Masri. NBX has sold more than 100 telephone systems, which have an average price of $12,000, since November. The company's products compete against others by Lucent Technologies Inc. and Northern Telecom Ltd., said Edward Wadbrook, NBX vice president of product management. Wadbrook said that NBX had been seeking a corporate partner to distribute its telephone systems, which operate by sending packets of digitized voice and data over local area networks and Ethernet. The acquisition was announced after the close of the stock market. o~~~ O