Hewlett-Packard Co.’s (NYSE: HPQ) pending buyout of 3Com Corp. (Nasdaq: COMS) highlights an accelerating race in the tech sector to grow businesses in an industry where development from within simply is not enough.
H-P will pay $2.7 billion in cash for 3Com, which is second to Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) in business networking. Cisco and H-P have steadily been encroaching on each other’s businesses: Earlier this year, Cisco started making servers while H-P last year began to renew investment in its ProCurve networking business.