3Com Lowers Guidance For 3Q

The networking hardware vendor said it expects revenue for the quarter to be in the range of $240 million to $245 million. The company had earlier projected that third-quarter sales would be 5 percent to 7 percent less than second-quarter sales of $303 million.

Enterprise networking sales are expected to be 13 percent to 14 percent lower than those of the prior quarter, due largely to weakness in the North America market, 3Com said.

Connectivity sales are expected to decline by slightly more than the 20 percent forecasted earlier, the company said.

CommWorks sales are expected to be down about 7 percent. 3Com had projected that CommWorks sales would be flat, compared with second-quarter sales, and Tuesday announced plans to sell CommWorks for some $100 million in cash. The company's cash balance at the end of the quarter is expected to remain at about $1.4 billion, as projected, the company said.

3Com said it would provide no further explanation or comment until it reports its third-quarter results in a conference call slated for March 19.