Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has announced its plans to acquire Juniper Networks in an all-cash deal valued at about $14 billion, a move expected to double HPE’s networking business. The deal comes as a result of a Wall Street Journal report about a potential acquisition, which saw Juniper’s stock surge 22% and HPE’s stock dip 9% before the official announcement.
Under the terms of the agreement, HPE will pay $40 per Juniper share. This acquisition is anticipated to significantly enhance HPE’s position in the rapidly growing field of artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud infrastructure, aligning with the company’s strategy to bridge the AI-native and cloud-native worlds.
In a statement, HPE President and CEO Antonio Neri expressed his confidence in the transaction, stating, “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.”
Following the acquisition, Juniper CEO Rami Rahim will lead the combined HPE networking business and will report directly to Neri. HPE, which was spun off from Hewlett-Packard in 2015, is now based in Houston, Texas.
The transaction has been approved by the boards of both companies and is expected to close later this year or early next year, pending approval from Juniper shareholders and regulators. Juniper Networks, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, specializes in providing cloud infrastructure solutions that are crucial for digital and AI strategies.
