HPE's Juniper Networks Acquisition: A Complete TimelineHPE's Juniper Networks Acquisition: A Complete Timeline

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), while promising for months that its landmark, $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks would close in late 2024 or early 2025, recently hit a roadblock when the U.S. Department of Justice sued to block the deal.

Citing competition concerns, the Trump administration's DoJ at the end of January noted that the combination would reduce the number of large, enterprise networking providers from three to two, with the third being Cisco.

“The threat this merger poses is not theoretical," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Omeed Assefi of the DOJ’s antitrust division on Jan. 30, 2025. "Vital industries in our country − including American hospitals and small businesses − rely on wireless networks to complete their missions. This proposed merger would significantly reduce competition and weaken innovation, resulting in large segments of the American economy paying more for less from wireless technology providers.”

HPE's Neri: Juniper Acquisition 'An Inflection Point'

More than a year earlier, in announcing the deal, HPE CEO Antonio Neri hailed it as "an inflection point ... what will change the dynamics in the networking market."

He called it a victory for both customers and partners.

HPE's Antonio Neri

“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," said Neri on Jan. 9, 2024. "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.”

Related:Partners View HPE-Juniper Deal with Cautious Optimism

We've compiled a timeline below of events related to HPE's Juniper acquisition beginning with the date rumors of a tie-up started swirling, which was just hours before the official announcement came down. We will continue to update our timeline as HPE-Juniper news breaks.

HPE-Juniper Timeline of Events

Jan. 9, 2024: HPE Acquisition of Juniper Networks Could Happen This Week

The Wall Street Journal and Reuters were the first to cite "sources familiar with the matter" that an HPE acquisition of Juniper Networks was on the immediate horizon.

Juniper's portfolio of routing, switching, network security, AIOps, SD-WAN and Wi-Fi solutions would be extremely attractive to an HPE that was looking to scale and better compete with Cisco on the networking front.

Related:HPE On Juniper Acquisition: Networking Now Core to Everything We Do

"If the acquisition does close, HPE will gain a significant service provider networking business, not just from a portfolio perspective but also commercial relationships with many of the tier 1 service providers," Matthew Ball, chief analyst at Canalys, Channel Futures' sister tech market analyst firm, said. "Juniper will also broaden HPE's data center switching portfolio, including Apstra for multivendor support/automation, gain its own silicon, and pushes it deeper into security with firewalls, SSE and threat detection."

Jan. 9, 2024: $14 Billion HPE Purchase of Juniper Networks Confirmed

The same day that serious rumors started swirling about an HPE-Juniper tie-up, we got word that a deal was indeed in place, pending regulatory approval and customary closing conditions, of course.

The most significant piece of the pairing would be combining Juniper with HPE's Aruba networking business, which accounted for 18% of HPE's overall revenue in 2023, but is expected to represent 31% of revenue after closing.

AI is part of the motivation behind the deal, as strong networking solutions will be key for powering artificial intelligence solutions moving forward.

Jan. 10, 2024: HPE on Juniper Acquisition: Networking Now Core to Everything We Do

One day after HPE confirmed its acquisition bid, CEO Antonio Neri hyped up the new networking opportunities that await customers and partners.

Related:DOJ Wants to Stop HPE's Juniper Networks Acquisition with Lawsuit

“What we’re doing today with this proposed acquisition is to create a new core,” said Neri. “That core is the network fabric by which we deliver hybrid cloud native services with the rest of the portfolio.”

Juniper Networks CEO Rami Rahim was excited about the combined company's reach.

“The ability to go and pursue more customers, especially internationally around the globe," he said. "That, when this deal closes, will change overnight — because of the channel and the direct sellers that HPE Aruba already has in place.”

Jan. 11, 2024: Partners View HPE-Juniper Deal with Cautious Optimism

We got some instant reaction from partners. They were cautiously optimistic for the most part.

Allen Advisers Group CEO Philip Allen was among the most supportive.

"If I was going into a fight before, I had one gun: [HPE-owned] Aruba," Allen told Channel Futures. "Maybe I sell some of these others as well, like Arista. But now it's almost like I've got a double-barrel gun that I can come to the fight with."

"It should be an interesting journey as they merge the organizations and then rationalize the products that HPE and Juniper already have with the final set of solutions that they're combining," said Juan Orlandini, Insight Enterprises' chief technology officer for North America.

Jan. 12, 2024: Poll: Partners Like HPE's Juniper Acquisition, but Cisco to Stay Dominant

Canalys, part of Channel Futures' parent company Informa TechTarget, polled partners on the acquisition. The analysts there found that 24% described HPE's move as an "excellent" one that would make the company a new leader in AI-led networking. Another 31% called it "positive," while 22% saw "some benefits" and 23% viewed it negatively.

Ultimately, those partners surveyed expected Cisco to remain the networking market leader.

Jan. 19, 2024: Partners, Distributors Deliver Verdict on HPE's Acquisition of Juniper

Channel Futures gathered responses not only from partners, but also distributors in the days after the news broke.

“Both vendors have a number of class-leading technologies, so we anticipate [Juniper CEO Rami Rahim's (who reportedly will oversee a joint HPE-Juniper networking business)], first task will be to assess any overlap with Aruba, considering their recent acquisition of Silver Peak — something we’ll be monitoring closely," said Russell Crampin, managing director at Juniper elite partner Axians UK.

Axians' Russell Crampin

"Juniper will bring their enterprise capability and their strong service provider customer base," said Alex Tatham, executive director at distributor Westcoast, "but the excellent Mist will compete more closely with Aruba product. Nevertheless, I think HPE will bring channel benefits and discipline to the combined organisation and create more opportunity for a wider number of channel partners."

Feb. 21, 2024: Partners 'Excited' by HPE's Acquisition of Juniper Networks

Reaction to the acquisition that Channel Futures got from partners in the weeks after the announcement was mostly positive. Naturally, Juniper Networks execs we spoke with at industry events were quite bullish.

“When we get the opportunity to engage [with partners] and explain and give them the insights around what it means, how we believe the new AI-native platform and cloud technology will enhance the joint propositions, they can see that it’s a great opportunity. They are really excited by it. That goes from your super VARs to smaller SIs, down to smaller boutique VARs. So we’re really pleased by the feedback,” said Juniper EMEA channel leader Dale Smith.

March 8, 2024: Cisco Vet Hope Gallery to Lead Juniper Americas Channel

Perhaps anticipating a tighter competition with rival Cisco after the acquisition by HPE was announced, Juniper Networks named a former Cisco insider to the role of VP of Americas channels.

Juniper Networks' Hope Galley

Hope Galley took over as channel leader in the Americas, responsible for leading strategy and market expansion through partners.

Galley worked at Cisco for 24 years.

March 14, 2024: Juniper Networks Reveals Latest Partner Program Updates

Juniper Networks didn't put its channel on hold awaiting the acquisition process to play out.

The company saw a 44% jump in number of MSPs participating in its partner program in 2023, so it updated its managed service provider designation. These partners would get more AI capabilities that Juniper said could improve customer service and boost profit.

April 10, 2024: CEO Neri to HPE Shareholders: 'We Have AI Covered'

In a year all of the major vendors declared themselves the best in AI in one way or another, CEO Antonio Neri noted that the company needed to do a better job clarifying its AI capabilities, but that it's uniquely positioned, especially with the forthcoming Juniper Networks acquisition, to be an AI leader.

Meantime, on the same call with shareholders, HPE chairperson Patricia Russo said the Juniper acquisition “changes the dynamics of the market and helps balance the company’s portfolio.”

June 21, 2024: UK Regulator Investigating HPE's Acquisition of Juniper

The combination of two IT giants was never going to be a slam dunk. We reported how the Competition and Markets Authority, the U.K.'s competition regulator, would investigate the proposed $14 billion acquisition's potential impact on competition.

Despite the roadblock, HPE continued to anticipate closing the deal by the end of 2024.

July 3, 2024: Juniper Preparing to Battle Cisco with Acquisition by HPE

Tom Wilburn, global VP of campus and branch networking with Juniper Networks, told attendees at the company's AI-Native Now event in London that the company was ready to go head-to-head with Cisco once its acquisition by HPE is complete.

HPE, Wilburn said, is excited to get its hands on Juniper's native AI architecture known as Mist, which itself acquired in 2019.

“This is not just software,” said Wilburn. “This is a system. Its purpose-built hardware and software, designed to get the right telemetry from the user experience. And then to have AI to do something smart with all that data.”

Juniper Networks' Tom Wilburn on stage at AI-Native Now 2024, London, July 2, 2024.

Aug. 5, 2024: European Regulator Gives Go-Ahead to HPE's Acquisition of Juniper

After an investigation, the European Commission said OK to the acquisition, noting that it "would raise no competition concerns in the European Economic Area."

That investigation seriously considered the impact of such consolidation on the supply of WLAN equipment, wireless access points, Ethernet campus switches and data center switches.

Aug. 8, 2024: UK Follows Europe's Lead in Clearing HPE's Acquisition of Juniper

HPE got another green light, this time from the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority, which determined that the acquisition would not stifle competition in the United Kingdom.

HPE's partner ecosystem leader in the U.K., Charlie Tunley, told Channel Futures that joining forces with Juniper Networks would make HPE "even more credible in that market."

Sept. 24, 2024: HPE Bringing Aruba Networking Channel Into the Fold

In a move that sets the HPE channel up for an integration with Juniper, the company integrated Aruba Networking's channel team into its global sales organization.

It was a move that was a long time coming, as HPE acquired Aruba in 2015, operating it as a subsidiary. The integration follows HPE refreshing its sales model in 2023, a move that included the relaunch of its Partner Ready Vantage program.

“The time is right to leverage the skills and capabilities of our extensive channel and partner ecosystem to ensure that customers around the world know that their technology partners are delivering the best edge-to-cloud solutions,” wrote HPE worldwide channel and partner ecosystem leader Simon Ewington and Aruba VP of worldwide sales Alain Carpentier in a joint blog.

Oct. 29, 2024: HPE Channel Ready for Massive Juniper Networks, Aruba Opportunities

Channel Futures sat down with Phil Soper, head of North America channel sales at HPE, at the Canalys North America Forum in Miami Beach, Florida, to discuss the potential opportunities for partners of both companies if the acquisition gets the green light.

What [HPE CEO] Antonio Neri has said is, this is our new core technology. So where our mission has been hybrid cloud, edge-to-cloud, I would say this solidifies the position we have at the edge. Thirty percent of our revenues, when Juniper happens, will come from networking profits. When you look at the channel impact, it's even more than that in terms of the business. We become a formidable competitor to Cisco, but I would say that it's very much on strategy as we continue to lead in our edge-to-cloud journey.

Left to right: Canalys' Alastair Edwards, HPE's Phil Soper and Milestone Tech's Sarah Miles at Canalys Forum North America, Miami Beach, Oct. 23, 2024.

Nov. 20, 2024: HPE CEO Hypes Juniper Networks Acquisition as It Faces Potential DoJ Block

For what seemed like the umpteenth time in 2024, HPE CEO Antonio Neri expressed confidence that the acquisition would close the acquisition by "the end of the year or early 2025."

Neri's comments came at HPE Discover Barcelona, around the same time that reports surfaced of representatives from both HPE and Juniper had been meeting with Justice Department antitrust enforcers to head off challenges to the deal.

Nov. 20, 2024: HPE Rolls Out Services Updates, Partner Sovereignty Competency

What appeared at the time to be just a few weeks before the pending close of the acquisition, HPE went live with updates to its Partner Ready Vantage program that assists partners with extending their managed services practices.

At the core were additions to its Service Track, a business area that's part of Partner Ready Vantage. The track features professional services, managed services, customer success Centers of Expertise and newly launched support services.

Jan. 27, 2025: Juniper Networks Reveals 2025 Partner Program Updates

In its second significant partner program update since the acquisition was announced, a Juniper channel exec told Channel Futures that the company has enhanced cross-selling opportunities across solutions and services.

The biggest news for partners might be that they can get rewards through a points-based Seller Rewards Program, which Juniper has integrated with its Champions community. They can also get deal-registration incentives, exclusive discounts on products and investment funds for new growth opportunities.

Jan. 30, 2025: DoJ Wants to Stop HPE's Juniper Networks Acquisition with Lawsuit

The U.S. Department of Justice filed suit to block HPE's proposed $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks, which at the time seemed almost imminent. The DoJ said the tie-up would eliminate "fierce" competition between the rival WLAN providers.

“We believe the DOJ’s analysis of this acquisition is fundamentally flawed and we are disappointed in its decision to file a suit attempting to prohibit the closing of the transaction," responded the companies in a joint statement.

Jan. 31, 2025: Analyst: Fundamentals of DoJ Lawsuit Against HPE-Juniper 'Correct'

Eric Hanselman, chief research analyst for TMT at S&P Global Market Intelligence, told Channel Futures that he's not surprised why the government would have concerns about a merger of two networking giants.

“The fundamentals are correct,” Hanselman said of the DoJ lawsuit.

“If you take a look at a number of smaller niche technologies in the networking world, we've certainly had a lot of consolidation there," Hanselman added. "But I think the situation there is that the actual valuations of the transactions have been lower and maybe that's a threshold for the DoJ.”