3Com Mixed Results For Bulls & Bears; Still Hopes For Merger Approval (COMS)

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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3Com Corp. (NASDAQ: COMS) posted what may be one of its last quarterly financial results for its fiscal second quarter ended November 30, 2007:

  • The company posted earnings with non-GAAP net income was $13.0 million, or $0.03 per diluted share on a non-GAAP basis, compared with net income of $7.8 million, or $0.02 per share, for the second quarter of fiscal year 2007.
  • On a GAAP basis, 3Com’s net loss in the quarter was $35.6 million, or -$0.09 per share. 
  • Revenue in the quarter was $317.8 million compared to revenue of $333.0 million in the year before period. 
  • First Call had non-GAAP estimates at $0.02 EPS and revenues pegged at $326.8 million. So it beat slightly on non-GAAP earnings but revenues were light.

The net loss increase was listed as being primarily tied to purchase accounting related to the acquisition of Huawei’s 49 percent ownership of H3C.  In its second quarter, 3Com generated $6.4 million in cash from operations.

The company is noting its merger progress, sort of.  3Com and affiliates of Bain Capital (and Huawei) continue to work together towards closing the previously announced proposed acquisition of the company. The transaction is expected to be completed by the first quarter of calendar year 2008, subject to receipt of 3Com shareholder approval, customary regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.  We had featured this as a company that management couldn’t fix, so it needs the merger.

If those revenues stay soft there, you’d wonder if Bain & Huawei want those regulatory approvals to go through.  We have 3Com under review for our next "10 Stocks Under $10" weekly subscriber newsletter.

Shares are actually up marginally by under 1% at $4.45 in after-hours trading after closing up 0.5% at $4.42 today.   With a $5.30 buyout there is still a 19% merger-arb spread on this deal, so there is still a perceived risk that the deal could get blocked.

Jon C. Ogg
December 19, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he produces the SPECIAL SITUATION newsletter and he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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