I was surprised to read this report by Matt Hamblen in ComputerWorld today that evidently the 3Com, Bain and Huawei deal may be rising from the dead.  3Com adjourned a shareholder meeting today until next Friday to give the parties time to work out a new plan and submit a new plan to those wild and crazy free trade hippies at CFIUS. 

As I have written before CFIUS just does not take kindly foreign companies buying US based security companies, let alone a Chinese company run by a former Peoples Republic Army Officer owning a piece of the action.  However, timing is everything and maybe the parties can take a new angle here.  Spinning out Tipping Point I would imagine has to be a first step in any acceptable plan.  I think the parties can come up with a plan that the government can improve.  To use another cliche, my reason is that necessity is the mother of invention.  At this point and at their current stock price, if 3Com can't figure out a way to get this done, they are in a heap of trouble.  What options do they have? 

Without bringing politics into the equation, I think a healthy 3Com that can compete with Cisco is important.  Taking Tipping Point out of the equation, I don't see what should hold this deal up. I think it will be best for a healthy competitive networking gear marketplace.  The current near monopoly situation in this market is not healthy.  Some of the weak sisters have to be removed and strong competition will result in the industry as a whole improving and the customer will win with better products, cheaper!

I will be watching next Friday to see what happens but I hope they can put something together that works this time!