HPE CEO Hypes Juniper Networks Acquisition as It Faces Potential DoJ Block

HPE DISCOVER BARCELONA 2024 — CEO Antonio Neri has hyped up HPE’s acquisition of Juniper Networks, saying the two companies hope to close the transaction “the end of the year or early 2025.”

Neri’s comments come as reports circulate that representatives from both companies have met with Justice Department antitrust enforcers to try to head off any further challenges to the $14 billion deal.

A decision on whether to challenge the deal could be made as soon as this week, according to Bloomberg, who cites people familiar with the matter. However, it said the companies may choose to delay the deal until President-elect Donald Trump’s administration takes over in January in the hopes of a more favorable view of the transaction.

The European Commission (EC) gave the greenlight to HPE‘s planned acquisition of Juniper Networks in August. It was followed just days later by the UK’s approval of the deal. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) had been considering whether the acquisition will stifle competition.

Juniper Acquisition: Taking HPE Networking ‘To a New Level’

Neri was speaking Wednesday at HPE Discover Barcelona 2024. “When we become one, we expect the network of the future will take a giant leap forward,” he told customers and partners.

Related:Juniper Preparing to Battle Cisco with Acquisition by HPE

Neri said artificial intelligence (AI) requires a modern networking foundation.

“This foundation will be the every bit as important as the silicon in unlocking the power and value AI holds,” he said. “We are taking our networking position to a new level, one that will disrupt the industry and extend our network and AI expertise by leaps and bounds.

HPE's Antonio Neri

“The Juniper deal will be an essential piece of the puzzle. Because together, we expect to have a lineup of secure, AI native network solutions to deliver exceptional user experiences across all segments, enterprise, cloud and service providers. Networking is the biggest enabler of AI, and hybrid cloud is the core foundation. So whether it is building the right network for AI or using AI to optimize network operations, the HPE and juniper combination will bring what we expect to be an incredible solution to meet the needs of today’s modern applications and workloads.”

Juniper's Rami Rahim

Neri was joined on stage by Juniper Networks CEO, Rami Rahim. He echoed Neri’s view that AI’s potential can only be unlocked with a network that’s up to the task.

“Today’s AI models require a network that’s fast, flexible and secure. Without that, you risk bottlenecks that underutilize the really, really expensive resources the GPUs that are used for training or for inference, or your AI projects can fail entirely without that really robust fabric.”

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