3Com to Buy Force10, Riverstone?

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langooru 12/5/2012 | 12:25:36 AM

re: 3Com to Buy Force10, Riverstone? Thanks; was going to be LanGuru but it sounded pretentious.
Am enthusiastic too about Foundry, wouldn't like to be a sales guy there though. BJ is ruthless.
Trapeze has some Extreme blood in them (& a good buddy) so I think they will deliver, you may be spot on.
Service Provider market is abysmal, the growth is too slow and they'd be nuts to pay much for anything. If I see another "new" edge provider switch i'll scream.

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canadian 12/5/2012 | 12:25:34 AM

re: 3Com to Buy Force10, Riverstone? Hmmm. This could be interesting.

Lantern have quietly built themselves a great little box providing Ethernet services. I have worked there and seen this thing work way better than Martini/VPLS/etc.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was truth to this comment. Lantern does sell all speeds of Ethernet for the Metro/Edge.

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Iipoed 12/5/2012 | 12:25:31 AM

re: 3Com to Buy Force10, Riverstone? Re: BJ of Foundry being ruthless?N ot the case. He is and has always been a totally hands on CEO. Remember he is the primary VC for Foundry and as such is very driven for the company and all his people to be successful. He gets more out of his employees than anyone else. some may call this ruthless I would prefer to label it committed to providing the most responsive company in meeting their customer's requirements.
BTW I worked there for 4 years and found Bobby Johnson to be the finest, most straight forward and by far hardest working CEO I have ever worked for. Not to mention a true loyalty to his vision for Foundry's continual success.

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metroman 12/5/2012 | 12:25:26 AM

re: 3Com to Buy Force10, Riverstone? I can see why you call him BJ!

Metroman

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wilecoyote 12/5/2012 | 12:25:23 AM

re: 3Com to Buy Force10, Riverstone? I have become a BJ fan along with becoming a Foundry fan.

More CEOs should follow his lead: put your own money in, don't be afraid to fail, take some chances, change direction if what you're doing isn't working (notice the absence of metro service provider customer announcements?), work your people hard but reward them for success and set an aggressive tone for the company.

I think he's got a weak team over there and the engineering talent is definitely questionable (let's face it Mucho Grande is dead on arrival)but he gets high marks for execution, drive and success in a very competitive market.

Can't argue with success. BJ may be a wild dude, but he's got the right formula at work over there. Let's see if he can avoid falling into the same trap as Juniper, and diversify his portfolio without getting unfocused. That will be the real trick. The encore for Foundry will be to take the company from $400M to a billion and beyond.

Hey BJ, the last guy who did that was Mory Ejabat (laugh all you want, Ascend critics. Fact was, he got ASND to $2B). He's probably playing a lot of golf right now given where Zhone is. You should bring him onto your Board. If you call him, you can say "Mory, it's BJ" and I guarantee that will get his attention.

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Iipoed 12/5/2012 | 12:25:21 AM

re: 3Com to Buy Force10, Riverstone? Metroman, come on where do I know you from? Did I sell you or try to sell you some Foundry. Did we go to lunch (my speciality)? Open up give me a hint.

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langooru 12/5/2012 | 12:25:15 AM

re: 3Com to Buy Force10, Riverstone? Lipoed - much respect - you get a different view on the inside and good to hear its positive.

Just a shame it's not as fun in the biz these days...
I remember Bob L at ctron being just as commited and hands-on 10 yrs ago. Just a tad "barking" though, the stories would have made a great biography.

langooru

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rebif 12/5/2012 | 12:25:02 AM

re: 3Com to Buy Force10, Riverstone? Amoungst the many reasons that 3Com failed were two that will prohibit them from succesful re-entry into the Enterprise and/or Carrier space.

Firstly, their commitment to bringing the best technology to market before any one else, in the least desireable packaging possible. Witness the 3500.

Second, their inability to sell to and support customers directly. Face it, 3Com thought they owned the channel and retreated from direct sales, figuring they would eat cisco's lunch by driving volume. Cisco invaded the channel and drove them out instead. And continued to take as much business direct as possible. And their Federal Program was a joke.

Had it not been for the sales executives jockeying for position, they could have really done some damage to cisco in the mid 90's. But egos rule at 3Com. Pervasive Networks my ass. Pervasive egos is more like it.

I pity the people who are aquired as part of this recurring nightmare.

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fundamental_guy 12/5/2012 | 12:20:28 AM

re: 3Com to Buy Force10, Riverstone? 3com should liquidate and distribute whatever money they have to the shareholders.
The real problem is that there may not be any
strong shareholders left to take this stance.
The only ones may be the management who takes in
a fat salary. They have first in almost everything
and "lost" in all that they got into....

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Charis 12/5/2012 | 12:11:15 AM

re: 3Com to Buy Force10, Riverstone? Rumor is both Juniper and 3COM looking at Force10 for enterprise expansion. Anyone
else here this? Thoughts?

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