3Com and Siemens Pick Management Team

3Com Corp. and Siemens AG appointed the team that will manage a joint venture set up to make gear to handle voice calls on data and video telecommunications networks. German telephone equipment company Siemens and 3Com, the world’s No. 2 maker of computer networking equipment, announced on Dec. 9 that they would invest more than $100 million in the venture. It will employ about 200 people, at least initially. The companies said Hans Schwarz, currently the head of Siemens’ enterprise data networking, will be general manager of the new venture. He joined Siemens in 1973. The companies also said they had named four executives to the board. These included Tom Burkardt, head of Castle Networks Inc., which is being acquired by Siemens, and Bernd Kuhlin, head of Siemens’ local-area-network products division. From 3Com, the board members are Janice Roberts, head of 3Com’s business development, and Edgar Masri, head of 3Com’s network systems business unit. Telephone service companies such as AT&T; Corp. and others want to move their voice traffic over to digital networks now used by computers because it is cheaper and more efficient. 3Com, Lucent Technologies Inc., Cisco Systems Inc. and others are racing to provide the gear that transfers voice traffic onto digital networks. Last week, Siemens said it would invest $1 billion on what it termed vital acquisitions in U.S. data networking markets.