Posted on 02/20/2008 5:07:21 PM PST by davidosborne
It was Just announced on Lou Dobbs show that Bain Capital Investment withdrew its application for a proposed take over of 3 com corporation. The company in charge of firewall, and anti-hacking software for the Department of Defense!!! I have never seen Lou Dobbs so elated he called it a victory for American interests, and proof that the system can work when our public servants work in the interest of the American people. It was reported that Bain withdrew the proposal when it became obvious the Committee On Foreign Investment was not going to approve it because it was a huge risk to national security. I will forward out the clip when it comes up on you tube, also the list of all of the Congressmen, and Senators who helped kill this that Lou will post on his site. I think we all know one Congressman who will be on that list, despite being accused of playing politics, because Bain Capital was founded by one of his fellow competitors for President, Duncan Hunter pressed on and used his campaign to bring this issue to light. I am proud to know Duncan Hunter a man who loves America, more than being President of the United States, a man who realizes that it is our duty to future generations, to preserve the freedom, and security that so many Americans died for in the past. A man who along with the other people who worked to stop this, realize the constitutional responsibilities they incur when they hold the office they hold. AMERICA WON ON THIS ONE!!! God bless them all, and God bless Duncan Hunter!!!
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Is Bain Capital communist owned?
Use them at will.
Good deal.
Good call. Hunter haranguing them paid off.
Ping
I think at some point it’s going to come home to roost that these people in the ME won’t keep taking our script for their oil if they can’t do anything with it. Dollars are like toasters in the 1920’s. We started protecting toasters around 1929. It didn’t turn out to well. But it felt really good at the time of Smoot Hawley to tell all them furners to go to hell. Sure did.
Can someone correct me and give me more details if I am wrong?
You wanted a PLA front group to be co-owners with Bain of a company that does cyber security for the DOD?
Sunbeam made electric doo dads and were the Google of their time. People threw money at them like made in the 20’s. Then when we built to overcapacity (today think deficit) we did the incredibly stupid thing of stopping imports to hasten the draft down of domestic inventories. The Great Depression followed.
Bian partnered with the Chi-com PLA front company to buy 3-Com.
Lou Dobbs is a lunatic crackpot. He's Al Franken without the humor.
I haven’t bought anything retail from 3com for ages. Sounds like another magnavox, something old and out of date and ready to be pawned off on someone else.
I agree. Demagogue egotistical ahole.
Re Dobbs, do we need to enforce immigration laws. To the hilt. But to piss off people already here because you woke up one morning and decided you had enough yard guys smacks of hypocrisy. Let’s enforce the laws and enfranchise the ones here. They are here because we let them in. We were greedy. Now get it organized and slowed down and legal. We need people. We got enough to hold for a while though. Slow it down. the idea was correct just slow it way down.
Eventually American Hispanics are going to help us politically to take over Mexico and Central America all the way to Panama. If you aint growing out as a nation, you’re dying.
Aint nobody taking us. We are adding to our base to take “them”.
Thanks, I thought they were buying a stake in the chinese company, and then were going to by 3com.
It wouldn't have bothered me to much if we started acquiring some of those companies over there, and getting access to their stuff.
That is only part of 3-Coms business. Cybersecurity is another.
Considering the fact that our DOD admit that they have no way to track who makes much of our sensitive military equipment, it should raise alarms automatically but it doesn’t.
Isn’t that kind of what it is. I mean you have encryption and it either works or it doesn’t. Russia has better firewall stuff than us now. Who knows. Just throwing out there that yes it’s good to defend the home economy and especially in the super sensitive areas but dollars have to start to come home or they are going to be totally worthless outside the USA at some point. Then the price of a bbl of oil is going to be astronomical because we don’t make enough of the stuff.
I believe we are buying time to ramp up another form of transportation (battery whatever) that will significantly reduce or dependency on foreign oil. Diesel and electric will make the 100 MPH car a reality in the next 3 years. We are buying time. It’s going to be close. Once the jig is up, our currency could plummet. It’s already 1.5 bucks to a Euro. That bad.
LOL. He was right to be mad. They are used to getting everything they want.
Yet another reason why Duncan Hunter was by far the best man for CIC.
GREAT NEWS, & am I ever proud that I supported Duncan Hunter!
It was an easy choice!
“It was an easy choice!”
For those who did their RESEARCH. Wish everybody did, rather than supporting the candidate that they’ve seen on tv the most.
And for those who wanted a rock ribbed Reaganite. But when you had freepers tossing their panties onto the stage for Rudy and Mitt, it was going to be a bad year.
The “security” angle is complete nonsense. 3Com doesn’t have any better security than most other network security firms, even after overspending over $430M on TippingPoint and wasted another $900M on buying half the partnership from Chinese networking company Huawei in H3C (stands for Huawei - 3Com).
Huawei already had partnership with 3Com going back to 2001, and in 2003 they formed H3C partnership, so saying that all of a sudden now Huawei’s ownership of 20% of private 3Com would be giving away military secrets is simply ignorant of what 3Com does and is now - a money-losing company which is a shell of its former self. They’ve been trying to spin off and IPO TippingPoint and security division for a year now without success (non-profitable and slow growing division with a lot of competitors, like Symantec, EMC’s RSA division, Israeli Checkpoint etc.) Firewalls, IDSs, IPSs are not a big deal to make and state-of-the-art changes daily. If DoD is still using 3Com “security” technology, God help us.
So, Huawei was already a full partner in a joint venture with 3Com for years (2003-2007) and is largest distributor and reseller of 3Com’s equipment (almost 25% of all 3Com sales), all they wanted was to make sure they have some minority stake in their supplier.
Just to prove a point, in 2007 after selling their half interest in H3C, Huawei made almost identical deal with Symantec to develop security and data storage products for telecoms - Huawei will own 51% of joint venture which will be based in China.
Huawei’s customers include China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Hutchison Telecom, SingTel, British Telecom (BT Group), Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone.
Huawei spends more than 10% of revenue on Research & Development, with R&D operations in US, India, Russia and Sweden.
3Com, meanwhile, is a dinosaur that is slowly dying and losing sales year after year and had no technology breakthroughs since they spun off PALM, an acquisition that they also overpaid for and screwed up.
Look at 3Com’s (COMS) stock chart and you will see all you need to see. This buyout was a way to save a formerly great company with management’s mistakes after financial mistakes going back years. They might still do it but at more expense and, if Huawei will stop re-selling 3Coms equipment, who would want to buy 3Com? Huawei’s minority stake in the new company was meant to insure that they will keep selling and improving (with their R&D) 3Com equipment, and was crucial to the deal.
Sorry to say - because I love Duncan Hunter - but is a big ado about nothing and that’s why politicians (and some financial/political commentators/windbags like Lou Dobbs - also sorry to say, because I liked him long long time ago) who have no idea about technology should not get involved in such transactions or at least get a little more and better advice from technology people than a “company is involved in security” sound bite.
/Rant over.
P.S. Full disclosure: I have and had no financial interest in 3Com - I never could trust their management not to make another bonehead move, and I was never disappointed in my distrust of their financial or technological acumen.
Whadderya, stupid?
Duncan Hunter win.
People bawlin' for a Conservative and a patriot, and there he was, right in front of their faces. *shakes head*
Amen! and BTTT!
Dude. Take a breath.
Here are some interests of Bain Capital (do not confuse with Bain & Company, which are now separate companies but which were founded by Bill Bain, formerly of Boston Consulting Group - Bain Capital was a spinoff of Bain & Co).
BTW, here’s Mitt Romney’s role in both companies:
By 1991 company lost almost half its employees and was overloaded with debt. Bill Bain was ousted, and Mitt Romney (head of Bain Capital, which had been founded with money from the 1985 Bain & Co ESOP deal) was brought in to revive the firm. Romney recapitalized Bain by pressing the original partners to return most of their holdings and redistributing ownership: About 40% went to the ESOP and 60% to a group of 75 partners. Bill Bain was left with no ownership except a small share of the ESOP. Basically, Mitt saved the company by redirecting money from inept management and “giving it to the people” who worked and were earning it.
Here is a small list of Bain Capital recent investments:
Domino’s Pizza, pharmaceutical group Warner Chilcott, Toys “R” Us, sportswear distributor Broder Bros., SunGard Data Systems.
Bain Capital joined Thomas H. Lee Partners in a nearly $20 billion offer for broadcasting giant Clear Channel, and is part of a group (with KKR and Merrill Lynch Private Equity) that bought HCA (Frist’s company) for approximately $33 billion in 2006.
In 2006 Bain announced deals to purchase Burlington Coat Factory and Sensata Technologies, the sensors and controls business of Texas Instruments. Also in 2006 Bain Capital teamed with The Blackstone Group to buy crafts retailer Michaels Stores.
Acquisition of UK food service supplier Brakes from CD&R is pending.
In 2007 Bain teamed with The Carlyle Group and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) to buy HD Supply, the wholesale construction supply business of The Home Depot, for $8.5 billion. It purchased South Africa’s largest fashion retailer, Edgars Consolidated (Edcon), for some $3.5 billion, Guitar Center for approximately $2 billion, and the kitchen and bathroom fixture business of American Standard (now Trane) for more than $1.75 billion.
Oh, and let’s not forget Guitar Center, GS Roofing, GT Bycicles, Matress Discounters, Alliance Laundry and Sports Authority and many more...
Welcome to the wacky and wondrous world of private equity!
Yup. I tried my dearndest to tell em too.
Thanks for the info!
Based on my experience, thats about the size of it. The only dealings I have with 3COM is when the phones in our IT department ring off the hook all at the same time, only to find one of their old crappy switches died. They are promptly replaced with Cisco switches and life goes on. Last year I actually took home a bad 3COM switch and shot it with my H&k .45 lol(yes it was one of those days)
Populist madness has infected him.
Perhaps he has a lot of company. It sure seems so.
a great story, and all you can do is criticize the messenger... pretty shallow my FRiend... any comments on the ISSUE?
Yes........
Just because a reputed ChiCom is in the mix with 3-com, what has changed when you prevent a American Company from taking it on as a asset. Just what exactly was prevented and how was National security improved?????
Answer that,and I'll consider it. Also, you need to be aware that the playing field is very small in the Capital business, and negating this sale will force 3-Com to use a foreign source, and since it is a multinational player, the lkely source will be foreign Capital that does not need to deal with cranky U.S. Congresscritters. In fact, they are helped by our foreign friends to buy into anything they can.
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