3Com-Huawei joint venture gets approval

WASHINGTON (AFP) Nov 17, 2003
A joint venture between US computer networking giant 3Com Corp. and China's Huawei Technologies has won all required government approvals and has begun operations, the two firms said Monday.

The joint firm, Huawei-3Com Co. Ltd, will be based in Hong Kong with operations in Hangzhou, China, and sales offices throughout China and Japan.

The firm will offer networking products including routers and switches.

Under the deal, 3Com has the right to market and support products under the 3Com brand in all countries except China and Japan. In China and Japan, Huawei-3Com will sell products sourced internally as well as from 3Com.

"By leveraging the enormous capabilities of our new joint venture, 3Com intends to fundamentally change the playing field in the enterprise networking industry," said Bruce Claflin, 3Com president and chief executive officer, and Huawei-3Com chairman.

"3Com is the right partner at the right moment in the global enterprise networking marketplace," said Ren Zhengfei, president and chief executive officer of Huawei and chief executive officer of Huawei-3Com.

"The growth potential in enterprise networking in the Chinese and Japanese markets is enormous, and the more mature markets of Europe and the Americas are ripe for competitive solutions that excel at performance and value."

SPACE.WIRE