Computer Reseller News reports:

Struggling networking vendor 3Com this week ousted President and CEO Edgar Masri and replaced him with an insider who will be based in China.

3Com Tuesday named board member Robert Mao as its new CEO. The Marlborough, Mass.-based company said it will support its increasing focus on its China-based H3C operations by basing Mao in China, noting in a statement that the new chief executive’s bi-cultural background, fluency in both English and Mandarin and his business experience in Asia will help bridge the company’s Chinese and western business operations.

Mao replaces Masri, who has held the title of president and CEO since August, 2006.

Losing out on a sweet deal from Bain and Huawei is reason enough for the board to dump Masri.

Moving the new boss to China makes a lot of sense: it’s where 3Com makes all its money. And most of that money comes from its erstwhile joint venture partner Huawei. H3C, 3Com’s China operation and initially the joint venture with Huawei, derives about 35% of its revenue from Huawei. The two firms have an agreement that Huawei would distribute and sell H3C equipment. That agreement expires sometime this year. It was meant to be extended once the acquisition was finalized.

As we all know, the acquisition was never finalized and now priority number one for 3Com is to make sure its biggest and best customer-cum-partner is happy and well-served.

Hence Mr. Mao’s ticket to China.

The CRN article noted the reaction of one of 3Com’s channel vendors:

“I don’t know what to make of it. There’s been little to zero leadership in North America for five years, and the decisions that have been made were either inconsequential or just silly, and now we’re looking at leadership coming from mainland China,” said Glenn Conley, president and CEO of Metropark Communications, a solution provider in St. Louis. “It sounds like they’re putting a bullet in the way they’ve done business in the U.S. and maybe starting from scratch.”

The US is not where 3Com makes its money and there’s little point in wasting resources there. 3Com just got rid of its worldwide channel program and is now opting for a “regional” approach. This means that the regions get to manage their own channel relationships. That means regions that make money, namely China, are free to develop their own local programs attuned to the specific market.

And the other regions? Have a nice day and save the whales.

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