3Com Corp. has responded to the
failed $2.2 billion buyout of the company last month by Bain Capital LLC and Huawei Technologies Co. with a senior management shakeup and
organizational restructuring aimed at leveraging its rapidly growing Chinese operation. The company announced on Tuesday that chief executive Edgar Masri was being replaced by Robert Mao, a 3Com board member who served as the company's executive vice president of corporate development between August 2006 and March 2007.
Under the new structure, Mao, who is Chinese, will be based in Beijing and will focus in part on accelerating the global expansion of 3Com's China-based H3C Technologies. During his seven months as evp of corporate development, Mao led 3Com's
effort to gain 100% control of H3C, a China-based joint venture it
had operated with Huawei since 2003. 3Com bought out Huawei's 49% stake for $882 million in March 2007.
Since then, 3Com and H3C have rapidly gained ground in China in their respective product categories. According to the IT market research firm IDC, 3Com is the market share
leader in China for enterprise stackable switch ports and router units,
and H3C is the top seller in a number of network equipment categories.
Prior to joining 3Com, Mao served as chief executive of Nortel Network Corp.'s China operations between 1997 and 2006. He also was a regional president of greater China for Alcatel.
- Suzanne Stevens
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