Eric takes over as CEO of 3Com, and as a first item of business, makes some hardline choices. SM: What catalyzed the CEO change at 3Com? EB: The board realized something needed to be done. In 1989, my two partners at Bridge, Bill Caraco and Judy Estren, left out of frustration. They realized this was
After the merger with 3Com, the company faced some significant internal challenges. There were two opposing business strategies, and clearly only one could be followed. This set the stage for Eric, not yet 35 years old, to become the CEO. SM: Was the 3Com merger when Metcalfe was running it? EB: Bill Krause, Metcalfe was
Here Eric details several significant happenings. Not only does he discuss the development of Bridge and the IPO, but also the birth of networking as a recognized market, as well as the merger with 3Com. SM: Where you running Bridge during the IPO? EB: I was not the CEO, but I was one of the
SM: Where did you go after Stanford? EB: The first company that offered me a job was Zilog. They were the second microprocessor company in Silicon Valley; Intel was the first one. The inventor of the microprocessor, Federico Faggin had left Intel and founded Zilog. I joined him about 12 to 18 months after he
Eric discovered, at a very early age, one of the most common attributes of entrepreneurs: “I want to do things my way!” This, however, was not welcome in France, where he was growing up. SM: The old “I am going to do it my way” saying … EB: That’s right. I even started a small
WSJ reports that Maggie Wilderotter has joined Yahoo’s Board. This may be considered as the first big move by Jerry Yang to catalyze change in the company. You can read my interview with Maggie here to catch up on who she is, and what she has done before. And my central thesis on Yahoo’s turnaround
While I suggested 2 years back, that Yahoo and eBay should merge, at the moment, it appears that Yahoo has created a bigger mess than what eBay (or anyone else for that matter) ought to try to clean up on their shareholders’ clock. eBay, on the other hand, for the moment, looks like it has
Yahoo’s future suddenly looks brighter, as Terry Semel steps aside, and Co-Founder Jerry Yang takes back the reins. Semel, a former Hollywood executive who joined Yahoo in 2001, will remain chairman in a non-executive role. Yahoo also expanded the duties of Susan Decker, who was earlier named the head of the company’s advertising business, and