Quarterly Earnings at a Glance
COMPANY		EARNINGS PER SHARE
3Com		-42 cents

3Com’s Woes Continue
Computer networker 3Com Corp.’s recent woes continued in its latest fiscal quarter with a $147 million loss and a steep decline in sales.
     The Santa Clara-based company’s loss for the fiscal fourth quarter ending June 2 translated into a setback of 42 cents per share, not quite as bad as Wall Street anticipated.
     Analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial projected a 44-cents-per-share loss for the quarter.
     In the comparable period last year, 3Com earned $87.5 million, or 24 cents per share. This year’s results included $74.8 million in pretax charges and an $89 million investment gain.
     During this year’s fiscal fourth quarter, 3Com’s sales from continuing operations plunged 38 percent to $764 million.
     The results exclude earnings from 3Com’s Palm Inc. unit, the top maker of hand-held electronic organizers, which is being spun off in late July. Palm will report fourth quarter financial results Wednesday, after the market closes, the company said.
     The quarter capped a tough year for 3Com as powerful rivals such as Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks and Lucent Technologies entrenched themselves as the dominant players in the computer networking market.
     A few months ago, 3Com conceded a big part of the battle by announcing plans to get out of the modem and corporate networking markets. As part of its reorganization, 3Com will eliminate 3,000 jobs.
     The company aims to cater more to consumers. Toward that end, 3Com this week disclosed plans to buy Cupertino-based Kerbango Inc., a provider of Internet audio products, in a deal valued at $80 million.
     “Given the magnitude of the changes implemented during the quarter, I am encouraged by our results and the progress we made on our transformation milestones,” said Eric Benhamou, 3Com chairman and chief executive.
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The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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