3Com announced today that it will be spinning off the Palm Computing division beginning with a stock offering in three to four months. Four to six months thereafter, they will spin off the rest of the stock, effectively splitting existing shareholders stock, giving them shares in both companies. Palm has been long been viewed as not fitting into 3Com's core business, and potential suitors rumored to be eyeing 3Com have been concerned about the disparity. "The natural partners for the networking business may not be the natural partners in the handheld business, and vise versa," said 3Com's CEO Eric Benhamou in a press conference this morning. Jim Barksdale, former CEO of Netscape, will be on the board of directors. When the transaction is complete, Palm Computing will be the first publicly-traded maker of handheld computers.

-Shawn Barnett (sbarnett@pencomputing.com)