In Brief: Mar. 13, 2000

PALM PIVOT

The tech-stock frenzy took a new twist last week with the IPO of Palm Inc. On the first day of trading, the PDA division of 3Com Corp. became more valuable ($53 billion) than its parent company ($28 billion), even though 3Com still owns 94% of Palm's stock. If you got in late, you got hurt. Palm fell 16% on Friday, to $80.25. 3Com, after falling 21% on Thursday, closed the week at $83.06. This week the arbs move in. Careful.

EASIER EBAY

Users of the popular auction site will have another way to make transactions. eBay and...