Ebb And Flow
3Com, a former Silicon Valley darling and the company that popularized ethernet, is moving to Massachusetts. Although once a high flier with a million square feet of real estate in its Santa Clara corporate campus (and more visibly, the naming rights to the San Francisco 49ers Candlestick Park), the company is a shadow of its former self with most of its operations now focused on the East Coast and Europe.
What struck me as interesting about this story is that no one seems to care. The strength of the Valley is that it is dependent on no single company or industry. Unlike the storm caused by Boeing announcing its move from Seattle to Chicago, 3Com's exit is just another of the daily ups and downs of the technology cycle. For every telecom or networking company that's retrenching, there is a consumer company expanding.
Silicon Valley has gone through wave after wave of boom and bust cycles, but long-term growth has always been strongly positive. And so with 3Com's departure, the cycle continues. Inevitably, Candlestick Park will get a new name, 3Com's former campus will get a new tenant and the Valley will create a new set of start-ups to create the agenda for this decade. It's what we do.
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Not wanting to be outdone by Dave Winer, 3Com has announced that it is moving its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Massachusetts. Read More
3Com gave up the naming rights to Candlestick last year in a cost cutting move.
No industry is spared cost cutting. Look at what is happening in Hollywood with production moving to Canada. Although SARS will have a reverse effect.
Hmm... 3Com was a victim of its own success. The effects of its departure, while it will have some pretty big effects, will be short term. The ability to fail gracefully is what makes this country great.