3Com Taps Sony Exec As Palm CEO

3Com picked a seasoned consumer electronics executive, Carl Yankowski - formerly the president and chief operating officer at Sony Electronics - to be the chief executive of Palm Computing.

Yankowski, who also was president and CEO of Reebok, was selected because of his experience with building brand value and "extending existing business," said Eric Benhamou, 3Com's chairman and CEO.

"[Yankowski's] wide range of management, technology and marketing experience makes him the ideal executive to extend Palm's leadership in the handheld market," Benhamou said in a statement.

In September, 3Com announced plans to spin Palm Computing off as an independent, publicly traded company. At that time, the company said it would conduct a search for a CEO to take Palm Computing public. 3Com expects to make an initial public offering for its Palm Computing subsidiary early next year - as soon as the end of January. Yankowski will start as CEO at Palm Computing on Dec. 13; he will also be a member of Palm Computing's board of directors.

Yankowski will join a fairly new management group at Palm Computing. Alan Kessler, president of Palm Computing, was appointed in June this year, and Judy Bruner was named chief financial officer in September.

3Com also announced today that Benhamou and Susan Swenson, president and COO at Leap Wireless International, would join Palm Computing's board of directors.