The turbulent saga of 3Com's joint venture with Chinese telecom equipment vendor Huawei has finally reached an end, with Huawei and Bain Capital acquiring 3Com for $2.2 billion in cash. The joint venture activity started in 2003, a time where Huawei was looking to expand internationally and chose 3Com as a partner for enterprise networking. The deal saw Huawei provide hundreds of engineering resources while 3Com provided the startup capital. At that time, the view was that Huawei needed 3Com more than 3Com needed Huawei. However, it quickly became clear that Huawei's growing presence and increasingly strong brand in developing countries was the most valuable asset, and Huawei was not going to benefit from the partnership in the North American and Western European markets. With Huawei a reluctant partner, it set out to maximize its investment by helping to ramp the joint venture sales and allowing 3Com to first buy a controlling stake in the joint venture in 2005, then a full acquisition of the joint venture in 2006 for a total of more than $900 million. At that point, Huawei effectively turned its back on the joint venture and exited the enterprise market. Without Huawei's support, the joint venture's sales and the value of the asset were sure to decline over time.

It was clear that the story was not over, and that the logical course would be for Huawei to re-emerge with a partner to acquire 3Com outright. With Huawei's support and commitment, the new company has a chance to thrive in the developing world, and with a possible name change ("Huawei Enterprises"?) will attempt to re-invigorate sales in the developed economies. Success is likely in developing markets; however, both the 3Com and Huawei brands are a difficult sell in North America. In Europe, the 3Com brand will sell to smaller businesses but not large enterprises, while the Huawei brand has low, but growing recognition.