¶ … glimpse into how technology companies work today, and what their strategies are for their continued growth. Hewlett-Packard (H-P) is one of the largest and most well-known high-tech companies in the world. In fact, the article states that it is the world's largest tech company by its revenues. H-P is acquiring 3 Com, a smaller company that has had problems in the current economic climate, to add another set of tools to its arsenal. A vice president with H-P says, "3Com has a better set of networking products for large corporate clients than H-P currently sells and a market share of more than 30% in the China networking market" (Scheck). Thus, H-P is positioning itself for a larger market share in China, and to better compete with Cisco Systems, another well-known high-tech competitor in the Silicon Valley. Perhaps the most important aspect of this article is not that H-P is branching out, but that this is a new phenomenon in the high-tech industry. Prior to the recession and lost sales, most high-tech companies remained in their own niche. For example, Cisco specialized in networking, H-P specialized in PCs and printers, and Dell specialized in PCs. Today, all have branched out to embrace other aspects of high-tech. Cisco has reached out to servers, which encroaches on Dell and H-P, and H-P is now encroaching on Cisco with networking tools. Rivalries that were friendly are now more strained, and there are no more clear lines...

Each of these companies (and more mentioned in the article), are attempting to become "one-stop shops" where customers can find all their technology needs, from computers and servers to software and peripherals, all from one company. They are also gobbling up smaller companies in this attempt, so they are becoming larger and more cumbersome at the same time.
For those of you who don't know, Hewlett-Packard is the world's largest high-tech company if you analyze revenue, which might surprise some of you. H-P is acquiring the networking company 3 Com for 2.7 billion dollars, in a move to put it in direct competition with networking giant Cisco Systems. For example, after the acquisition, H-P's market share in networking units shipped will reach 40% worldwide, while Cisco's units shipped is 54% worldwide. 3 Com is a major player in China, so H-P will become better known and respected in China as a result of the sale.

While the acquisition is important for H-P and its worldwide operations, it's important for a number of other reasons. Many high-tech companies are expanding into territories they never explored before due to the rough economic conditions and dropping sales. H-P used to deal exclusively in PCs and printers, and in fact, their largest source of revenue was printer ink cartridges, as short at time ago as 2005. Today, H-P and many other companies are diversifying; trying to…