DOJ settles with Hewlett Packard Enterprise over Juniper Networks acquisition

Court filings show the U.S. Justice Department settled its lawsuit against Hewlett Packard Enterprise's cash acquisition of Juniper Networks.

The acquisition was $14 billion.

In January, DOJ sued HPE, arguing the proposed transaction "would eliminate fierce head-to-head competition between the companies, raise prices, reduce innovation, and diminish choice for scores of American businesses and institutions, in violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Act."

Both companies said in a news release that HPE has "agreed to divest its global Instant On campus and branch business" and HPE will "facilitate limited access to Juniper's advanced Mist AIOps technology."

Under the settlement agreement, the company must divest HPE's "Instant On" wireless network program and license the source code for Juniper's Mist AI software that is used in Juniper's WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) products, Reuters confirmed.

A judge has to approve the settlement.

“Our agreement with the DOJ paves the way to close HPE’s acquisition of Juniper Networks and preserves the intended benefits of this deal for our customers and shareholders, while creating greater competition in the global networking market,” said Antonio Neri, president and CEO of HPE, in a statement. 

“For the first time, customers will now have a modern network architecture alternative that can best support the demands of AI workloads. The combination of HPE Aruba Networking and Juniper Networks will provide customers with a comprehensive portfolio of secure, AI-native networking solutions, and accelerate HPE’s ability to grow in the AI data center, service provider and cloud segments,” he added.

Juniper Networks CEO Rami Rahim described the settlement as an "exciting step forward in delivering on a critical customer need – a complete portfolio of modern, secure networking solutions to connect their organizations and provide essential foundations for hybrid cloud and AI.”