3Com has strong quarter

3Com put in a strong performance during its just-ended

first quarter of fiscal 2000, saying profits rose 38 percent on strong

demand for the Palm handheld computers. 3Com said it earned $119.3 million

on operations, up from $86.7 million in the comparable quarter a year ago.

Sales, however, fell to $1.39 billion from $1.41 billion, as modem sales

declined 19 per cent. Sales of Palm computing products rose 50 percent to

$174.2 million and sales of computer networking products rose nine per

cent to $674.2 million.

Just last week 3Com announced it would spin off the Palm unit. Analysts

said the latest Palm sales will help 3Com interest investors to buy Palm

stock when it is introduced in the next year. 3Com wants to raise the

money to help the Palm unit fight off mounting competition from Windows

CE-based devices.