For the current fiscal year's second-quarter, 3Com Corp's reported a 55% increase in earnings, on the back of huge previous year write-downs and tax benefits that have been bagged over the past few months. Sales also managed to fall far less than what was being expected.

Last month only, the maker of networking gadgets had given the nod for a $2.7 Billion takeover by giant manufacturer of PCs and computer equipment, Hewlett-Packard Co., which is, like many other technology giants, looking to become a one-stop shop for all its customers.

For the quarter up-to November 27, 3Com posted earnings of $20 Million, or 5 cents per share, a substantial rise from the figure of $12.9 Million, or 3 cents a share, which was posted for the same period last year.

Revenue, on the other hand, declined by 9.1% to $322.2 Million, but is still higher than the forecast shared by the company in September which pegged a profit of 6-7 cents per share on a revenue of between $295 Million to $305 Million.

"We exceeded our guidance for revenue, operating profit, earnings per share, and our cash balance, while delivering sequential revenue growth across all our sales regions and achieving record gross and operating margins", CEO Bob Mao said.

On the back of the results, shares of 3Com managed to grow to a new trading figure of $7.55 from $7.47.