Hewlett Packard Enterprise announced it will acquire AI-native networks company Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR)in an all-cash transaction for $40.00 per share, an equity value of approximately $14 billion.
“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,” said HPE President and CEO 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. 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.”
Industry analyst Patrick Moorhead, founder, CEO, chief analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, commented, “When speculation about the HPE acquisition of Juniper leaked to the press on January 8, my initial thoughts were that HPE is likely seeking a strong AI anchor for its portfolio of hardware, software, and GreenLake IT consumption services. AI is hot, ignited by the attention being directed toward generative AI, the underlying large language models, and many promising use cases. One could argue that beyond the AIOps capability found in the HPE Aruba Networking portfolio today, HPE needs further AI depth to remain competitive and continue to grow its top line revenue and profitability. Juniper could deliver on that front.”
In its announcement, HPE highlighted “the explosion of AI and hybrid cloud-driven business is accelerating demand for secure, unified technology solutions that connect, protect, and analyze companies’ data from edge to cloud. These trends, and AI specifically, will continue to be the most disruptive workloads for companies, and HPE has been aligning its portfolio to capitalize on these substantial IT trends with networking as a critical connective component.”
Combining HPE and Juniper’s complementary portfolios supercharges HPE’s edge-to-cloud strategy with an ability to lead in an AI-native environment based on a foundational cloud-native architecture. Together, HPE and Juniper will provide customers of all sizes with a complete, secure portfolio that enables the networking architecture necessary to manage and simplify their expanding and increasingly complex connectivity needs. Leveraging industry-leading AI, the combined company is expected to create better user and operator experiences, benefitting customers’ high-performance networks and cloud data centers.
Through its suite of cloud-delivered networking solutions, software, and services including the Mist AI and Cloud platform, Juniper helps organizations access the cloud infrastructure. The combination with HPE Aruba Networking and HPE AI interconnect fabric “will bring together enterprise reach, and cloud-native and AI-native management and control, to create a premier industry player that will accelerate innovation to deliver further modernized networking optimized for hybrid cloud and AI,” HPE said.
Upon completion of the transaction, Juniper CEO Rami Rahim will lead the combined HPE networking business, reporting to Neri.
“Our multi-year focus on innovative, secure AI-native solutions has driven Juniper Networks’ outstanding performance,” said Rami Rahim, CEO of Juniper Networks. “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.”
