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Hewlett-Packard Co. announced Wednesday it will purchase networking company 3Com for $2.7 billion, and also preannounced higher fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and raised its outlook for fiscal 2010.

The deal is worth $7.90 per share of 3Com, which is 39% higher than the stock’s closing price of $5.69 on Wednesday. Shares of 3Com (COMS) soared 35% to $7.65 after hours on the announcement.

"By combining HP … with 3Com’s extensive set of solutions, we will enable customers to build a next-generation network infrastructure that supports customer needs from the edge of the network to the heart of the data center," said Dave Donatelli, HP’s vice president of networking, in a statement.

3Com took in $1.3 billion in revenue last year on its networking and securities solutions products. The Marlborough, Mass.-based company mostly does business with corporate clients, and its H3C networking unit is a market leader in China.

HP (HPQ, Fortune 500) said it made the acquisition to expand its networking solutions offerings and to "significantly strengthen the company’s position in China." The company said 3Com has been very successful in rapidly gaining market share in China, scooping up 30% of the network switching market.

On a conference call with analysts, Donatelli said 3Com had "best-in-class products," which will be married with HP’s mammoth distribution and sales arm. When the sale is completed, "the networking world will be completely transformed," he boasted.

HP said it will grow both 3Com’s and HP’s sales force after the deal goes through, which will likely close in the first half of 2010. The boards of both companies have approved the deal.

Over the past year, HP has increased its services and business solutions business exponentially, catapulted by its $13.9 billion acquisition of services firm EDS in 2008.

"3Com is perhaps the most undervalued company in the networking space," said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with Yankee Group. "3Com’s biggest challenges have been channel and brand same day payday loans… but HP’s strong brand and distribution capabilities can overcome those difficulties."

Kerravala said 3Com has the broadest portfolio of products except for networking leader Cisco, but HP’s acquisition will help leverage 3Com’s products to create an even stronger competitor to Cisco (CSCO, Fortune 500).

Better outlook: In addition to the 3Com acquisition, HP also announced preliminary financial results for the its fiscal fourth quarter ended in October. The tech giant said it will report earnings of 99 cents per share, up 18% from last year. Excluding one-time items, earnings were $1.14 per share, HP said.

Revenue will come in at $30.8 billion, which was down 8% from a year ago, the company added.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, who typically exclude one-time items in their estimates, expected earnings of $1.12 per share and revenue of $29.8 billion.

HP also upped its guidance for fiscal 2010. The company said it will record revenue between $118 billion and $119 billion, up from its previous estimate of $117 billion to $118 billion. The new outlook is mostly higher than analysts’ consensus estimate of $118.2 billion.

Full-year earnings per share estimates were increased to $3.65 to $3.75, up from its previous estimate of $3.60 to $3.70. Excluding one-time items, HP said it would earn between $4.25 to $4.35 per share, mostly higher than analysts’ forecast of $4.28.

"Solid execution drove exceptional performance for HP this quarter, fueled by significant growth in China," said Mark Hurd, HP’s chief executive in a statement. "We are delivering on our strategy and are well positioned going into 2010."

HP, a Dow Jones industrial average component, will report its full, final financial results on Nov. 23. Its shares fell 1% to $49.47 in after-hours trading. 

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Can you tell the difference between a plastic shoe and a luxury sports car?

Porsche, the famed German car company, is entangled in a legal spat with Crocs, the maker of rubber shoes. At issue: The shoe company’s use of the name Cayman for a line of footwear.

Porsche also has a product called the Cayman, and it claims that Crocs’ (CROX) use of the name infringes on Porsche’s trademark.

In Porsche’s case, the Cayman is a two-seat hard-top sports car with a starting price of about $51,000. Crocs’ Cayman is the familiar rubber clog with thick soles, holes covering its upper surfaces and a starting price of about $30 a pair.

The blog Footnoted.org spotlighted the quirky legal fight this week after finding it disclosed in the fine print of Crocs’ most recent quarterly report, which Crocs filed last week.

Crocs Europe, a division of the Niwot, Colo payday cash advance.-based shoe company, received a letter from Porsche on May 11 claiming that the Crocs’ use of the Cayman name violated Porsche’s trademark rights. Porsche demanded that Crocs immediately stop using the name, and also requested payment for the legal costs incurred in writing the cease-and-desist notice.

That was followed on July 30 by an injunction against Crocs Europe’s use of the Cayman name in Germany.

"The company intends to vigorously defend itself against these claims," Crocs said in its quarterly filing.

Neither Crocs nor Porsche was immediately available to respond to a request for comment on the legal spat. 

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Federal Reserve officials on Tuesday struck a cautious note on the U.S. economy, citing high unemployment, heavy reliance on government support and commercial real estate woes as hurdles to recovery.

Speaking less than a week after the Fed left interest rates unchanged at near zero, a trio of top officials — San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Janet Yellen, Atlanta Fed chief Dennis Lockhart and Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren — said the economy was still vulnerable.

“The strength and durability of the expansion is in question,” Yellen said in Phoenix, Arizona. “High unemployment, weak job growth and paltry wage increases are a recipe for sluggish consumer spending growth and a tepid recovery.”

The Fed chopped overnight interest rates to near zero in December and it has pumped more than $1 trillion into the economy to spur a recovery from the deepest downturn since the Great Depression.

Last week, it reaffirmed its commitment to keep borrowing costs ultra-low for “an extended period,” and financial markets will be listening to Fed officials closely to try to gauge when they may finally move to withdraw their economic support.

The latest remarks eased investor’s worries about higher interest rates, helping support prices for U.S. government debt.

Yellen and Lockhart are among the voters this year on the Fed’s policy panel, while Rosengren will move into a voting slot in 2010. While Yellen and Rosengren are seen as Fed “doves” on inflation, Lockhart is considered more of a hawk.

“It’s a question of timing,” Rosengren told a seminar in London when asked how the Fed planned to exit from its extraordinarily supportive policies no credit check payday loans. “We’re not there yet.”

SELF-SUSTAINING RECOVERY QUESTIONED

Yellen said it remains to be seen whether the private sector can carry the load once supportive fiscal and monetary policies fade. Meanwhile, Lockhart said that while a recovery was under way, growth would be “relatively subdued” in the medium term.

“The situation is much improved, but there are sobering aspects of the economic picture,” he told a conference in Atlanta, adding data on bank failures, foreclosures, unemployment and personal income “continue to disappoint.”

The U.S. economy grew at a 3.5 percent annual rate in the third quarter, snapping four consecutive down quarters and likely ending the recession that began in December 2007.

But labor market conditions remain dismal. The unemployment rate surged to a 26-1/2-year high of 10.2 percent in October, and a Reuters poll on Tuesday showed economists expect it to hit 10.5 percent in mid-2010 before subsiding.

High unemployment is one factor expected to keep the Fed on the sidelines. The central bank said last week that economic slack, subdued inflation trends and stable inflation expectations argued for a prolonged period of low rates.

“At this juncture, it’s hard to be encouraged about a fast rebound in job growth,” Lockhart added. 

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The unemployment insurance bill that President Obama signed Friday won’t just help the jobless and the homebuyer. It also includes a long-awaited break for businesses that will let them quickly turn their recent losses into cold cash.

The bill will let all businesses apply their losses from either 2008 or 2009 to any five years prior to 2008. By doing so, they can get a refund from the IRS on the taxes they paid for those five years.

A loss is defined as the amount by which a company’s tax deductions exceed its gross income.

Under current law, the so-called "net-operating loss carryback" is only allowed for two years.

There are only two restrictions to the new provision. The first is that no business that has accepted funding from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) would be eligible for the break. And the second is that any refunds for taxes in the fifth year would be reduced by 50%.

The provision is estimated to cost $10.4 billion over 10 years, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.

Businesses have been angling for this break throughout the recession. And they expected it to come a lot earlier. A similar measure was proposed for inclusion in the $787 billion stimulus package passed in February. But it ended up being watered down so that only small businesses with gross revenue of $15 million or less could qualify.

While those small businesses represent about 98% of companies, they only represent roughly 5% of taxable income, said Clint Stretch, managing principal of tax policy at Deloitte, at the time.

Not surprisingly, the estimated cost of that provision in the stimulus bill was considerably lower, just under $1 trillion.

Who is likely to benefit most

While most businesses have suffered during the downturn, those in the hardest hit industries are going to enjoy the biggest break.

"The homebuilders and banks that have never taken TARP money are the most obvious beneficiaries," said Anne Mathias, director of research at Concept Capital’s Washington Research Group, in a research note.

But she also noted others in line to benefit include semiconductor companies, materials companies, retailers and print media companies.

While an overwhelming majority of lawmakers voted for the overall bill, not all lawmakers are happy with the provision.

Calling it a "corporate giveaway, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, said, "This is a textbook example of how not to deal with the economic challenges facing our country," according to a CongressDaily report on Thursday.

A supporter of the provision, House Ways and Means Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass, said it would help businesses hard up for cash. "It will provide quick capital at a time when it is nearly impossible to find," Neal said.

The quid pro quo

One way the legislation seeks to pay for the cost of the tax breaks is to delay the implementation of a tax relief provision for multinational companies that was supposed to be enacted in 2011. Under the bill, it will now be enacted in 2018.

The tax relief measure is intended to create more of an incentive for multinationals to invest in the United States. And the way it is structured it would benefit financial services companies the most.

The delay in implementation is expected to raise $20.1 billion over 10 years, the JCT estimates.

Multinationals aren’t happy about it but they haven’t fought the measure because "they have bigger fish to fry," such as the potential loss of their ability to defer paying U.S. tax on income they haven’t brought back to U.S. soil, said Joanne Thornton, director of international research at Concept Capital, in her research note.

There is also a possibility that the delay in the measure could become permanent in part because it will be a tempting revenue raiser to pay for other legislation.

The House health reform bill, for example, already calls for a full repeal of the multinational tax relief measure for a savings of $26.1 billion over 10 years.

Now, Thornton said, "there will be a $20.1 billion hole in the health care bill."

Anticipating that the unemployment bill would pass, House lawmakers have already proposed another measure to compensate, which potentially could raise nearly $24 billion. But they’re still negotiating the legislative language and that could reduce how much the measure raises.

– CNN’s Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report 

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China’s ties with Africa have been a magnet for critics worried about corruption and human rights on a continent struggling with both, but its investments are bringing more growth than risk for countries starved of trade.

Two-way trade flows have ballooned tenfold since 2000, to $107 billion last year, as China builds infrastructure, sells cheap goods and buys much-needed energy and mineral resources.

These deals have drawn criticism from activists and politicians, often Western, who say China is stripping Africa of raw materials while shoring up corrupt and oppressive regimes.

But African and Chinese businessmen and academics say Beijing is filling a yawning need for key infrastructure, and Chinese firms are also shaking up moribund markets where Western companies were doing little to develop local economies.

“We always talk about trade being more important than aid,” said Adrian Davis, the China head of Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID), which works with Beijing to support development in Africa.

“This is money going into Africa … We are investing in health and education, but Africa also needs physical infrastructure which we in the West haven’t been doing.”

China’s critics also say they are concerned about what it is funding, and how, as roads, stadia and government buildings built with Chinese cash spring up around the continent — some of them aid, some of them trade, but many something in between.

Beijing entwines business and assistance more closely than Western governments, using infrastructure to pay for resources and often disbursing donated funds through the Commerce Ministry quick payday loan.

This makes it hard to put a figure on handouts, and the only official number for Africa covers all spending from 1949 to 2006.

“We put everything into a very big basket called economic cooperation; investment, humanitarian assistance, contracts. So it is difficult to figure out what belongs purely to aid,” said He Wenping, an Africa expert at an official Beijing think-tank.

CUTTING OUT CASH

But Beijing is aware of the risk to its reputation and market access if projects are derailed by sleaze and its bankers have used their trade-aid model to curb dangers, experts say.

Bypassing host governments and paying Chinese firms directly to build a road or hospital, which is handed over when completed, cuts opportunities for the most predatory graft that often left other aid projects unfinished.

“The Chinese say: ‘We will take your gold and put in so many schools, we will take your copper and put in a railway line’,” said Kwaku Atuahene-Gima, a Ghanian citizen who is Professor at the China Europe International Business School.

“If that happens, that is a more effective way of developing the system than giving loans and aid money that go into the pockets of politicians and other people who squander it.” 

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Kraft faces a tougher task winning over Cadbury shareholders in its bid battle after disappointing results late Tuesday cut analyst estimates of what it could afford to pay for Cadbury.

Kraft’s results, released after the market close, reinforce the view it will rubber stamp an original offer and turn the bid hostile, before using a $9 billion bridge loan to sweeten the cash element of its offer at a later date, they added.

Pablo Zuanic at broker JP Morgan said Kraft’s results were likely to cap any improvement in its offer.

“Re: the Kraft bid, we now assume a lower price on lack of competing bids, lower synergy assumptions and our growing belief Kraft could walk away… We doubt Kraft will go over 780 pence,” he added.

Kraft launched a cash-and-shares offer for the British confectionery group in early September which Cadbury promptly rejected, and by late September the UK Takeover Panel ruled that Kraft had until November 9 to make a formal binding bid for Cadbury.

The initial approach was priced at 745p a Cadbury share, or 10.2 billion pounds ($16.8 billion), but the fall in Kraft shares make it presently worth around 733p, against a current Cadbury share price of around 776p.

VALUE MAY DIP

The value of Kraft’s offer - some 60 percent in new Kraft shares - is likely to dip further when Kraft shares open later on Wednesday. Kraft shares were off 2.7 percent at 18.23 euros in early European trading.

For current values based on the latest share prices, click on.

One Cadbury top-ten investor has indicated to Reuters that a Kraft bid of 820p “certainly stacks up” and would be looked at seriously, while some brokers such as Credit Suisse still see Kraft having to pay 850p to win Cadbury.

“We believe Kraft and Cadbury are still far apart on valuation, so that offer when it comes will be hostile,” said analyst Graham Jones at broker Panmure Gordon.

He added that Kraft will be able to raise the cash level of its bid to 400p a Cadbury share from 300p after raising $9 billion of bridge finance, but its lower share price is unlikely to help its cause.

Although Kraft beat earnings expectations, it reported weaker than expected third-quarter revenue and cut its full-year 2009 sales growth forecast to about 2 percent, from 3 percent previously, pushing its shares down in after-hours trading.

Panmure’s Jones point out Kraft’s results disappointed on sales growth for the fourth quarter in a row, with underlying sales only up 0.5 percent compared to Cadbury’s impressive 7 percent third-quarter growth, as reported last month.

Other analysts said this reflected the description of Kraft by Cadbury Chairman Roger Carr as a “low growth conglomerate business model,” in a September letter to Kraft’s CEO Irene Rosenfeld emphasizing why Cadbury was rejecting Kraft approach. 

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Bank of New York Mellon Corp Chief Executive Robert Kelly was recently approached about taking the CEO job at Bank of America Corp, but he has shown no interest in the job, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the Journal reported on Sunday that Kelly has been approached more than once about being a potential successor to Kenneth Lewis, who will retire at the end of this year.

Some Bank of America stakeholders and regulators are pushing the board’s search committee to look outside the company for the next CEO, but potential candidates have fallen short of the board’s hopes or were not interested, the paper reported on its website easy online payday loans.

The search committee could also hire an insider, and Bank of America Chief Risk Officer Gregory Curl and small-business banking head Brian Moynihan are the two top candidates in that case, sources told the Journal.

The search committee is not expected to make a decision until the end of this week at the earliest, these sources told the paper.

Spokesmen for Bank of America and BNY Mellon did not immediately return calls seeking comment on the Journal report.

(Reporting by Anupreeta Das; Editing by Bernard Orr)

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