'Great move - all power to Juniper and HPE's respective elbows!': Channel reacts to $14bn deal

Experts say HPE's acquisition of Juniper will intensify competition with Cisco in enterprise networking

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced last week it was acquiring Juniper Networks in a $14bn (£11bn) deal that many claimed sets up a battle for network supremacy in the AI era between HPE Aruba Networking and market leader, Cisco Systems.

HPE said the deal to buy Juniper provides it with additional AI networking muscle and effectively doubles its networking business, creating what it called a "new networking leader with a comprehensive portfolio that presents customers and partners with a compelling new choice to drive business value."

On a pro forma basis, the new networking segment will increase from approximately 18 per cent of total HPE revenue as of financial year 2023 to approximately 31 per cent and contribute more than 56 per cent of HPE's total operating income.

'The move will give Cisco a run for its money'

"This is a great acquisition and a perfect addition to the HPE ecosystem," Sarah Shields, group alliances director at Computacenter told CRN.

"Strengthening HPE's networking portfolio makes perfect sense.

"Consolidation of key vendors makes sense and we look forward to continuing two great partnerships as one."

Alex Tatham, MD at Westcoast adds: "It is an exciting move by HPE giving HPE Aruba ever more enterprise capability and access to service providers.

"Juniper Mist competes more with Aruba and both are excellent technology and are being widely adopted.

"The move will give Cisco a run for its money - and, as the UK's only HPE, Aruba and Juniper distributor (and also not a Cisco distributor) means Westcoast will be ideally positioned to help both the merging/merged organisation and assist the resellers in the transition and beyond.

"Great move - all power to Juniper and HPE's respective elbows!"

James Sanders, principal analyst at CCS Insight also comments claiming the acquisition complements HPE's takeover of Aruba in 2015, adding enterprise-grade router and firewall products to HPE's broader networking portfolio.

"HPE's stewardship of Aruba over the past eight years should be encouraging to existing Juniper customers, particularly as Juniper CEO Rami Rahim is staying on to lead the combined networking business unit.

"Overall, the two product portfolios are more complementary than competitive. On this basis, it appears an easier journey through regulatory approval than other recent large deals.

"The key component for HPE in this transaction is Mist Systems, which Juniper acquired in 2019 for $405m.

"Mist Systems developed an AI-powered software-defined networking platform used to simplify network automation, particularly for improving performance of enterprise Wi-Fi networks.

"Of note, Wi-Fi performance and reliability was the highest-ranked concern among enterprises with a hybrid working model in CCS Insight's 2023 senior leadership IT survey."