1979 – 3Com is founded, and it turns out that , the father of Ethernet, is the father of 3Com, too. He holds the post of CEO for three years.
1981 – The company ships its first product, an Ethernet adapter.
1984 – Its initial public offering yields $10 million in stock revenue.
1986 – The company relies on , servers and its network operating system 3+ for most of its sales.
1988 – 3Com ships 3+Open, the first network operating system based on Microsoft’s LAN Manager.
1987 – The company buys Bridge Communications, maker of multi-protocol bridges.
1990 – Facing stiff competition from Microsoft and Novell, 3Com gets out of the network operating system business.
1990 – Eric Benhomou is named president and CEO of the company. He stepped down as CEO in 2001, but he remains chairman.
1994 – The company buys switch maker Synernetics, remote-access server maker Centrum Communications and ATM vendor NiceCom.
1995 – 3Com buys hub and switch vendor ChipCom for $775 million.
1997 – The company spends $7.3 billion to buy U.S. Robotics, the maker of modems and Palm handhelds.
2000 – 3Com gets out of the large enterprise switching market and spins off Palm as a separate entity.
2003 – The company creates a joint venture with Huawei – H-3C - in an effort to get back into large enterprise switching. The headquarters moves from Santa Clara to Marlborough, Mass.
2004 – for $430 million.
2006 – for $882 million.
2007 – with help from Huawei for $2.2 billion, but federal regulators block the deal. 3Com spins out Tipping Point as a separate publicly held business.
2008 – and sets up shop in China where H-3C claims dominance.
2009 – . The company for $2.7 billion.