USR merger hits 3Com's figures

3Com UK has made up to 30 people redundant following a reorganisation of the company - less than a year after it restructured to cope with the acquisition of US Robotics.

The three divisions involved - client access, enterprise and carrier - will now come under two headings. Client access will be unchanged, while the other divisions will be regrouped under the banner of systems business unit.

It was understood that the redundancies included Frank Pipe, UK manager of 3Com's carrier division. 3Com confirmed there had been redundancies but refused to name individuals.

The move comes as 3Com restated last year's figures, revising net profit from $597.6 million to $500.5 million for its fiscal year ended 31 May, 1997. According to sources, 3Com was unable to shift as many USR 56K modems as it expected. Last year, distributors complained they were left with a 'virtual modem mountain'.

Bob Cushing, European marketing director at 3Com, said: 'If you add the fact that we had different fiscal periods, then there are bound to be ripples that need to be sorted out.'

He denied the vendor was closing the carrier unit but said: 'There is a lot of synergy between the two divisions and it does not make sense to have two groups.'

Cushing admitted there would be casualties of the reorganisation, with three per cent of the vendor's 3,500 European employees expected to lose their livelihood. The redundancies follow the recent closing of 3Com's Cirencester branch and the shedding of 71 jobs (PC Dealer, 17 January).

Richard Chilver, MD at Unity, said: 'The reorganisation will make it easier to communicate compared to a year ago - it has been 12 months of frustration.'

Although Chilver anticipated no problems in terms of distribution, he said: 'One reseller did not know what was going to happen to him, as he sold carrier but not enterprise products. I didn't know what to tell him.'