$14 Billion HPE Purchase of Juniper Networks Confirmed

Media reports of a behemoth tech deal came true Tuesday afternoon when HPE confirmed the acquisition of Juniper Networks.

Texas-based Hewlett Packard Enterprise announced it is buying Juniper for $40 a share, or approximately $14 billion. The deal will pair Juniper with HPE's Aruba networking business. HPE's networking business accounted for 18% of overall revenue in the previous fiscal year to approximately 31% following the deal, the companies said. HPE is putting an increased focus on networking, eyeing it as a key lane for powering artificial intelligence (AI) solutions.

“HPE’s acquisition of Juniper represents an important inflection point in the industry and will change the dynamics in the networking market and provide customers and partners with a new alternative that meets their toughest demands,” HPE CEO Antonio Neri said. “This transaction will strengthen HPE’s position at the nexus of accelerating macro-AI trends, expand our total addressable market, and drive further innovation for customers as we help bridge the AI-native and cloud-native worlds, while also generating significant value for shareholders. I am excited to welcome Juniper’s talented employees to our team as we bring together two companies with complementary portfolios and proven track records of driving innovation within the industry.”

Acquisition of Juniper

The companies said the marriage will bolster Juniper's footprint in data centers and with cloud providers.

Juniper CEO Rami Rahim is set to head the combined HPE networking unit after the deal closes. Phil Mottram currently serves as HPE's executive vice president and general manager of the intelligent edge business.

“Our multi-year focus on innovative, secure AI-native solutions has driven Juniper Networks’ outstanding performance,” Rahim said. “We have successfully delivered exceptional user experiences and simplified operations, and by joining HPE, I believe we can accelerate the next phase of our journey. In addition, this combination maximizes value for our shareholders through a meaningful all-cash premium. We look forward to working with the talented HPE team to drive innovation for enterprise, service provider and cloud customers across all domains, including campus, branch, data center and the wide area network.”

The announcement confirmed media reports from the Wall Street Journal and Reuters that popped up on Monday.

Analyst Perspective

Omdia analyst Roz Parkinson covers Juniper as part of her enterprise networking coverage (Omdia and Channel Futures are both owned by Informa Tech). Speaking to Channel Futures before HPE officially announced the deal, Parkinson said HPE's brand recognition would benefit Juniper, particular in enterprise, data center and through the widely touted HPE GreenLake platform.

Parkinson noted curiosity over where Juniper would slot in.

"However, HPE already has an intelligent networking portfolio through its acquisition of Aruba in 2015 for $3 billion, and SD-WAN provider Silver Peak for $925 million in 2020," Parkinson wrote in an email. "This raises a critical question: Would HPE integrate Juniper into its intelligent networking portfolio, or run it as a siloed business unit?"

She and her Omdia colleagues agreed that HPE would need to merge Juniper into the intelligent networking business and GreenLake.

"Juniper offers HPE a highly-regarded AI engine and intelligent automation in the campus, data center and WAN, three areas which need to be unified to offer a next generation networking experience. Combined with HPE’s strength in data center and hybrid cloud infrastructure, this could be a formidable offering to rival Cisco. "