HPE was approved to pay $14 billion to acquire Juniper Networks

Following a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) that addresses antitrust issues, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has been given the go-ahead to move forward with its $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks.
Due to competition concerns, the DOJ lawsuit was halted.
Because of concerns that the merger would lessen competition in the U.S. cellular networking industry, the DOJ had earlier filed a lawsuit in January 2024 to prohibit the deal. Behind market leader Cisco Systems Inc., HPE and Juniper were then the nation’s second and third-largest suppliers of wireless networking equipment, respectively.

The DOJ has now dropped its opposition, albeit with some important limitations, as a result of a compromise agreement that was submitted to the U.S. “The U.S. District Court located in Northern California received the filing on June 27.”. Although a judge’s final permission is still waiting, most people assume it will only be a formality.
Important Settlement Conditions
The DOJ has set two main rules to protect market competition:

Licence and Auction Source Code for Juniper’s Mist AI Operations Software
The merged entity must organize a bidding process to provide licensing rights to the source code of Juniper’s Mist AI Ops technology. One of the most valued assets that HPE wanted in the deal was this software.
The DOJ states that the license needs to be:

Infinite

Not exclusive

Provide personnel transfers and optional transitional support to help new licensees use the technology.
By doing this, competing networking firms can place bids to obtain the same state-of-the-art AI-based technology that HPE plans to purchase.

Sell off HPE’s Instant On Wireless division.
Additionally, HPE must sell off its wireless local area networking (WLAN) division, “Instant On.” This comprises:

Every piece of software and intellectual property

Teams working on research and development

more about:

Relations with customers
The divestiture must be completed within 180 days of concluding the transaction and must be sold to a DOJ-approved buyer.
Small and medium-sized enterprises are the main target market for HPE’s Instant On product line, which provides simple, cloud-managed wired and wireless networking solutions.

Juniper and HPE Respond to the Agreement
HPE executives voiced confidence in the deal’s long-term value despite the DOJ-imposed constraints.

Antonio Neri, CEO of HPE, said:

This deal safeguards global market competition while still delivering the core advantages of the acquisition to our customers and investors,” said Neri. “For the first time, businesses will be able to tap into a next-generation network architecture specifically designed to handle AI-intensive workloads. By uniting HPE Aruba Networking with Juniper Networks, we’re building a secure, AI-driven networking portfolio that’s ready for the future.” This is especially crucial for the AI data center, service provider, and cloud infrastructure industries.

This view was mirrored by Juniper CEO Rami Rahim, who described the deal as a “key step forward” that enables the companies to provide a comprehensive and secure networking solution for enterprises aiming to power AI and hybrid cloud environments.
The True Prize Is AI Networking
HPE has repeatedly emphasized that the acquisition is a component of its long-term plan to dominate the rapidly expanding field of AI networking, which supports the functionality of enterprise AI applications and large language models (LLMs).

Neri emphasized in a late 2023 speech at HPE Discover in Barcelona that networking is equally important to enabling AI as high-performance chips:
“We’re elevating our role in the networking space to a game-changing level — one that will redefine the industry and significantly expand our capabilities in AI and network technology.Providing robust, high-performance networking systems has become a necessity — not a choice — for powering the future.