# What happened to 3Com?

DevFeed: [What happened to 3Com?](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/what-happened-to-3com-133394.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://blog.adafruit.com/2026/11/13/what-happened-to-3com/>)

Author: Anne Barela

Published: 2026-11-13T22:09:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Adafruit Industries](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/adafruit-industries-makers-hackers-artists-designers-and-engineers.md>)

Topics: [Networking hardware](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/networking-hardware.md>)

Tags: [3com](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/3com.md>), [blog](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/blog.md>), [bob-metcalfe](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/bob-metcalfe.md>), [broadband](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/broadband.md>), [cisco](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cisco.md>), [computers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/computers.md>), [dos](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/dos.md>), [ethernet](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ethernet.md>), [hardware](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/hardware.md>), [hewlett-packard](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/hewlett-packard.md>), [history](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/history.md>), [intel](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/intel.md>), [isa](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/isa.md>), [network](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/network.md>), [retro](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/retro.md>), [retro-computing](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/retro-computing.md>), [vintage-computing](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/vintage-computing.md>)

## AI overview

Founded by Ethernet co-inventor Bob Metcalfe in 1979, 3Com built a reputation for reliable network cards whose higher price was offset by working drivers and hardware made in the United States. The excerpt attributes its decline to leaving enterprise switches and ceding share to Cisco without saving money, buying US Robotics at a premium as broadband was arriving, and Intel undercutting its network cards. The company was unprofitable from 2000 to 2005; Hewlett-Packard bought its assets for $2.7 billion in 2009. For retro systems, the excerpt recommends the common, inexpensive 3c509 ISA card for DOS and 3c905 PCI for Windows 95 and newer.

## Source excerpt

Dave Farquhar traces the rise and fall of 3Com on his blog The Silicon Underground. Bob Metcalfe, the co-inventor of Ethernet, founded the company in 1979, and for two decades its network cards were the safe choice. They cost more than clones, but the drivers worked, the hardware was reliable, and they were made in [...]