NEW YORK-3Com Corp. spun off 4 percent of its Palm Computing unit March 2 in an initial public offering of 23 million shares that received enthusiastic investor reception.
The IPO, lead-managed by Goldman Sachs & Co., debuted at $38 per share and closed its first day of trading on Nasdaq at $95.06 in heavy trading. Palm Inc. had registered the offering in December with an expected price range of $14-$16 and had raised the anticipated range Feb. 28 to $30-$32 per share.
Palm had 68-percent market share of the worldwide hand-held device market in 1998, according to International Data Corp.
The company’s newest model, the Palm VII, added wireless Internet access to address book, electronic mail and memo functions. Its Palm.net service transmits abbreviated Internet data to the Palm VII.
Palm has joined with two of its competitors, Psion and Nokia Corp., to take on the Microsoft Corp. CE computing platform. Palm’s other competitors include Handspring, whose founders developed Palm’s technology before leaving 3Com.
3Com acquired Palm in 1995 as part of its purchase of U.S. Robotics, a modem manufacturer. America Online Inc., Motorola Inc. and Nokia Corp. are investors in Palm.
