Today in Globe Business

3Com to be sold to HP for $2.7 billion

Computer giant Hewlett-Packard Co. will buy network equipment maker 3Com Corp. of Marlborough for $2.7 billion in a head-on challenge to Cisco Systems Inc., which dominates the network business. The deal will position HP to attack the heart of Cisco’s market, and it comes only a week after Cisco teamed up with data storage titan EMC Corp. of Hopkinton to invade HP’s stronghold in server computers and storage.

“This is going to rock the networking world,’’ said 3Com’s president, Ronald Sege, adding that HP’s global sales force could quickly expand 3Com’s market share.

3Com is the second major Massachusetts tech company in the past month to be acquired by a Silicon Valley firm, as the tech sector reacts to decreased business spending with a wave of consolidation deals. In October, Cisco said it will pay $2.9 billion to acquire Tewksbury-based Starent Networks, a maker of network gear for cellular telephone systems.

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Stimulus funds are slow to arrive

Only a fraction of the federal stimulus money earmarked for Massachusetts has been spent so far, a Globe review of government filings has found.

Massachusetts organizations have been awarded $3.9 billion in stimulus contracts, loans, and grants. But as of October, Bay State government agencies and companies have received only $622 million and have spent almost all of it, according to data from the government agency charged with tracking stimulus funding. The findings could explain why unemployment continued to climb in the state, hitting 9.3 percent in September.

“Most of the money has not yet been used in a way that could create or save jobs,’’ said Michael Balsam of Onvia Inc., a Seattle company that tracks government contracts. Nationwide, Balsam estimated, only one-quarter of the stimulus money has “actually left Washington, D.C.’’

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TECH LAB: Your life story, as data points

Now appearing on Google: The story of my life. And yours.

Not everyone can read it, but the engineers and advertising specialists at Google can. And now users can get a peek, thanks to Google Dashboard, a new service developed at the search giant’s outpost in Zurich. Dashboard lets registered Google users see what the company knows about them. If you’ve got a Google account, just punch up www.google.com/dashboard, and get ready to feel your skin crawl.

Google knows just about everything about me. No deep, dark secrets; just thousands of tiny data points which, when put together, could provide a pretty thorough biography.

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Plymouth absorbs news of studio setback

PLYMOUTH - Town officials and residents were taken by surprise yesterday when news broke that developers of a proposed $550 million movie studio on the South Shore had severed ties with their major lender. But some remained supportive of the team of film executives behind Plymouth Rock Studios, who came to town two years ago with the promise to create Hollywood East, bringing much-needed tax dollars and jobs to this coastal community.

Dick Silva, Plymouth Rock’s most enthusiastic local supporter and president of the booster group Yes to the Rock, said he talked to fans who remain upbeat.

“It’s just a step backward in the climb up the hill,’’ Silva said. “I anticipate that someone is going to look at this and decide that funding the project will be a win-win for both Plymouth Rock and its investors.’’

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MANAGING YOUR MONEY: Congress whiffs on tax credit

It’s official, we have a new tax break for people who don’t need it, with money our government doesn’t have.

In an effort to stimulate the economy, the people who wouldn’t know a balanced budget even if you smacked them in the head with it have extended the excessive first-time homeowner’s credit of $8,000, but also expanded it to include a credit for current, longtime homeowners.

It just pains me to spell out the details of this latest stimulus windfall. But here I am letting you know about the new law, the Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009, which was signed into law on Nov. 6.

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