Hewlett Packard (NYSE: HPQ) on Monday announced that it has completed its acquisition of 3Com Corporation. In a release, the computer maker noted that "customers will be able to simplify their networks, deploy an edge-to-core network fabric for the enterprise and improve IT service delivery capabilities." This move is also expected to strengthen HP's position in China and also its ties to China's networking giant Huawei Technologies; 3Com's sales to China and Huawei in 2Q were $151 million and $18.2 million respectively.

In addition, HP's buying of 3Com is also expected to strengthen its own network expertise in the wake of competition from one-time partner Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO). Recent moves by Cisco have pitted the top networking company in the world against HP, as the former sought to gain a stronger foothold in the datacenter by integrating networking with computing.

For more on this story:
- check out the article at InformationWeek 

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