Business news with words bain+billion+investment. 4 news.

BAIN Capital Partners' US$2.2 billion acquisition of 3Com Corp is expected to be finalized by the end of the first quarter, though the deal is being investigated by the US regulator because of a Chinese firm's involvement, the US-based private investment firm said yesterday. Bain Capital announced in September its plan to acquire the US-based telecom equipment firm 3Com. As part of the transaction, Huawei plans to acquire a minority interest in 3Com. The US regulator intervened later citing "national security" because 3Com's clients include the Pentagon and other US bureaus. "It is just a deal between two US companies and many steps can be taken to avoid a 'China connection' to the 3Com's sensitive clients," said Jing Huang, Bain Capital's managing director, who was attending the China Venture Capital Annual Forum 2007 in Shanghai. Huawei will acquire the 3Com's stake, 16 percent as reported, through Huawei Tech Investment, a Hong Kong-based subsidiary and it

Geoffrey the Giraffe, the Toys "R" Us mascot, has every reason to feel he's suffering from whiplash. In 1998 the chain ceded its status as the nation's top toy seller to Wal-Mart. Then U.S. same-store sales slipped for four consecutive years. And in 2005, KKR, Bain Capital, and real estate investment firm Vornado Realty Trust took the company private in a $6.6 billion LBO.

3COM Corp, the money-losing computer networking equipment maker that agreed to be taken over by Bain Capital LLC, forecast yesterday it will be profitable in about four years, helped by demand in China and India. The company will earn a profit "around" 2011 as sales rise about 60 percent from last year to US$2 billion, said Jay Zager, chief financial officer of the Massachusetts-based company. 3Com plans to target emerging markets such as India, the world's fastest-growing major telecommunications market, and the Middle East, Zager said. The strategy may build on the success of 3Com's former venture in China with Huawei Technologies Inc, Bain's partner in the US$2.2 billion bid to buy the United States company. "The trick is to offer more products," Zager said. "We're going to focus on emerging markets like India and the Middle East, places where there's going to be greater annual growth." 3Com, which competes against leader Cisco in the US$16-billion global market for network switches, will post an operating profit in the year ending in May 2008, Zager said, declining to specify a figure. The average of four analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg News is for a US$50.7 million profit. The purchase will lead to some job cuts at the research and development, supply-chain and information technology units of the company, which employs 6,000 people, Zager said, without providing a figure. Shenzhen-based Huawei will hold a 16.5 percent stake as part of the acquisition, scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2008. Bain said last week Huawei's involvement won't be a threat to US national security and the company has voluntarily submitted the acquisition agreement for a review by the US Committee on Foreign Investment.

THE United States will probably investigate the US$2.2 billion purchase of 3Com Corp planned by Huawei Technologies Co and Bain Capital LLC on national security grounds, the Financial Times said, citing former government employees. The US Committee on Foreign Investment looks closely at any Chinese transactions involving the government's information technology, the newspaper said, citing Christopher Simkins, a former Justice Department official. Huawei's ownership of 3Com would be "really worrisome," the newspaper quoted Sami Saydjari, who was an Internet security expert at the Pentagon, as saying.