Hewlett Packard, Juniper defend $14bn deal as US justice department moves to block transaction
02 Feb 2025
Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Juniper Networks have come out strongly against the US Department of Justice’s move to block HPE’s $14 billion deal to acquire the networking gear maker.
DoJ on Thursday filed a suit to block HP’s deal to acquire Juniper Networks, alleging threat to competition.
Responding to DoJ’s move, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Juniper Networks said the proposed acquisition, on the contrary, will drive innovation for customer solutions, enhance an already competitive market, and fortify US national security and the American “Core Tech” sector.
The companies said the Department of Justice’s analysis of the proposed acquisition is fundamentally flawed and its decision to file a suit to prohibit the closing of the transaction is disappointing.
The DoJ’s interpretation of antitrust laws is overarching, the companies said, and vowed to demonstrate how this transaction will provide customers with greater innovation and choice, positively change the dynamics in the networking market by enhancing competition, and strengthen the backbone of US networking infrastructure.
The companies said all other major anti-trust regulators who have reviewed the deal have been consistent in their conclusion that the transaction brings together two complementary networking offerings and will create a networking player with the scope and scale to more effectively compete with global incumbents.
The companies said the proposed acquisition will provide a modern, secure network built with AI to customers while ensuring a better user and operator experience, creating healthy competition.
The companies pointed out that there is already robust competition in the Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) area with as many as eight alternatives to HPE and Juniper.
Against this, the DoJ claims that the WLAN market is composed of three primary players, which is way away from market realities. In fact, the advent of cloud and AI has prompted a shift of customers to secure, unified technology solutions to protect data. Simultaneously, the collapse of entry barriers has helped to intensify competition and expansion of demand for WLAN.
WLAN is already an extremely competitive market with a number of well capitalised competitors in the US, including one with 50 per cent market share.
The deal has been approved by antitrust regulators in 14 jurisdictions, including the European Commission, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority.
US and Israel are the only jurisdictions holding back approval for the deal, the companies pointed out.
