European Commission green-lights HPE's $14bn acquisition of Juniper Networks

"Based on its market investigation, the Commission found that the transaction, as notified, would not significantly reduce competition on such markets," European Commission

Citing "no competition concerns" in the European Economic Area, the European Commission Thursday unconditionally approved Hewlett Packard Enterprise's $14bn blockbuster acquisition of Juniper Networks

"Based on its market investigation, the Commission found that the transaction, as notified, would not significantly reduce competition on such markets," the European Commission said. "In particular, concerning the horizontal overlaps between the companies' activities in the market for WLAN equipment, WAPs (Wireless Access Points) and Ethernet campus switches."

The blockbuster deal sets up a battle for network supremacy in the AI era between HPE Juniper and market leader Cisco Systems, which has dominated the networking market since the mid 90s.

The acquisition effectively doubles HPE's networking business, creating what the company has called a "new networking leader with a comprehensive portfolio that presents customers and partners with a compelling new choice to drive business value."

HPE CEO Antonio Neri has said the deal represents an "important inflection point in the industry and will change the dynamics in the networking market" by providing customers and partners with a "new alternative" that meets their toughest demands.

The European Commission found that the combined entity's market position would "remain moderate." In fact, the Commission said HPE-Juniper would "continue to face competition from a wide range of competitors, including strong and established players on each of the markets."

Another factor, the European watchdog said, is that HPE and Juniper are not each other's closest competitors. "Customers have a certain level of countervailing buyer power, allowing them to react in case of price increases of WLAN equipment," the Commission said.

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is also looking into the potential impacts of the HPE Juniper deal.

The CMA has set a deadline of August 14 to decide whether to approve the deal or progress the investigation to a formal "phase 2" inquiry that would spawn a deeper investigation.

The merger has been approved by both HPE and Juniper board of directors as well as shareholders.

Importantly, it is unlikely that the deal will need China's approval as it falls below the Chinese merger threshold. But the US Federal Trade Commission will still likely scrutinise the merger.

In a prepared statement, HPE said the European Commission approval "satisfies a major closing condition" to the proposed acquisition.

HPE said the deal creates "significant opportunity" for customers, the networking industry and for HPE as a company. "We will continue working to complete all necessary remaining reviews and secure additional clearances quickly and efficiently so that we can begin delivering value to our customers as soon as possible," HPE said. "We continue to expect to close the transaction by the end of calendar year 2024 or early 2025."

At the recent HPE Discover Partner Summit, HPE CEO Antonio Neri urged partners to stay focused on selling the HPE Aruba networking platform and not become distracted by the acquisition.

"We need to stay focused as we close the transaction with Juniper," he said. "Stay focused on the business. Don't delay anything. Keep going! The Aruba platform is phenomenal. In fact one of the biggest neighbourhoods you are going to see here on the (show) floor is actually the edge networking neighbourhood. The innovation is beyond amazing!"

Partners "anxious"

HPE partners, for their part, have told CRN they are anxious to learn more details about the integration of the HPE and Juniper Networks' product portfolios.

"More than anything we are excited to hear about the future plans," said Chris Miller, CTO of Advizex, a Fulcrum IT Partners company that has made significant AI solution investments and is building out a hybrid AI offensive. "HPE already has a very strong AI story and this is going to add to it."

Patrick Shelley, CTO at PKA Technologies, a top HPE partner, said the big question is exactly what the vision is around bringing the two portfolios together.

"We are anxious to see whether they are going to create a new product line or integrate Mist into the HPE portfolio," he said. "The question is how do you combine the two portfolios into a new AI era networking portfolio?"