HPE-Juniper deal hits DOJ roadblock
The Department of Justice sued to block the $14 billion deal. HPE and Juniper called its analysis 'substantially disconnected from market realities.'
BREAKING NEWS -- The U.S. Justice Department is suing to block Hewlett Packard Enterprise's $14 billion acquisition of networking technology vendor Juniper Networks.
The DOJ lawsuit, filed on Jan. 30 in the Northern District of California, alleged the acquisition would eliminate competition, increase customer prices and violate Section 7 of the Clayton Antitrust Act. The DOJ claims HPE and Juniper are the second and third largest networking vendors in the U.S., respectively.
"HPE and Juniper are successful companies. But rather than continue to compete as rivals in the WLAN marketplace, they seek to consolidate -- increasing concentration in an already concentrated market," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Omeed Assefi of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division in a statement.
The two vendors fired back in a separate press release, calling the DOJ's analysis "fundamentally flawed."
HPE and Juniper stated that the DOJ's analysis of the WLAN market "is substantially disconnected from market realities." They noted the transaction has been approved by antitrust regulators in 14 jurisdictions, including the European Commission and the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, and said they've yet to see customer complaints regarding the consolidation. The companies added that they will fight the lawsuit.
HPE first announced its plan to acquire Juniper Networks in January 2024. The move would double HPE's networking business with current Juniper CEO Rami Rahim leading the operation and reporting to HPE CEO Antonio Neri.
HPE's Aruba networking technology brand competes with Juniper’s Mist AI software and switches. Networking technology analysts anticipated HPE to incorporate Juniper hardware and software into its Aurba line, increasing the diversity of offerings available and making HPE more competitive against networking rival Cisco Systems.
Reporting in progress. Full report to follow.
Tim McCarthy is a news writer for Informa TechTarget covering cloud and data storage.
