Networking equipment maker 3Com Corp. on Thursday announced wider losses in the third quarter, which ended Feb. 27.
The Marlborough, Mass., company reported a net loss of about $86 million for the quarter, compared with a loss of $79 million for the year-ago quarter. 3Com was hit with $40 million in restructuring charges in the quarter, mostly for outsourcing manufacturing from its Dublin, Ireland, plant and cutting its workforce from 2,900 to 2,100.
Revenue for the quarter was $172 million, down from $245 million for the same year-ago quarter. Sales of desktop, mobile and server connectivity products were down globally, but the company saw a 10 percent jump in revenue in its wireless, security and IP telephony products from the prior quarter.
In January, the company introduced the 3Com Switch 7700R, the second product to come out of 3Coms joint venture with Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., of Shenzhen, China. 3Com says sales of this switch kept enterprise networking sales flat sequentially in what is normally a seasonally slow quarter.
3Com predicts revenue will stay flat or rise slightly in the next quarter.
“While we are a long way from the good old days of the late 90s, we do believe the industry is again growing, albeit modestly,” Mark Slaven, 3Com executive vice president and chief financial officer, said in a conference call.
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