3Com and Broadcom in Two Deals

3Com Corp., a maker of equipment to link computers, gave Broadcom Corp. the right to purchase about 2% of its stock and formed a development alliance with the Irvine maker of communications chips.

Broadcom will receive a warrant to acquire 7.1 million shares in Santa Clara-based 3Com over two years, Henry T. Nicholas III, Broadcom’s chief executive, said in an interview.

Broadcom stock rose $14.63, or 11%, to close at $142.81 a share in Nasdaq trading. 3Com shares rose 34 cents to $9.97.

Under the alliance, 3Com and Broadcom will develop, sell and market new products based on the gigabit ethernet data standard for corporate networks.

The alliance gives 3Com access to Broadcom’s new semiconductors, while Broadcom, the biggest maker of chips for cable modems, gets to put its products in more of 3Com’s popular network-interface cards.

3Com is already a shareholder in Broadcom as a result of investments in companies subsequently acquired by Broadcom.

The two companies have collaborated previously on network-interface cards. Broadcom supplies the chips in 3Com’s current generation of ethernet cards and generates more than 10% of its revenue from sales to 3Com, Nicholas said.

To avoid conflicts, the companies agreed to cross-license all their patents on gigabit ethernet.