HPE and Juniper: The path to the new number one in the network market?

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Juniper Networks have reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) that paves the way for HPE's acquisition of Juniper Networks. The settlement includes the sale of solutions for small business customers and offers of limited licenses of a management solution to address competitive concerns.

Background to the settlement

The US Department of Justice had raised concerns about competition in the networking solutions market. It argued that the takeover would eliminate competition, particularly in the WLAN environment, leaving only the two companies Cisco Systems and HPE. Together, they would then have more than 70 percent market share for network equipment in the USA.

The AI functions of the cloud management solution Mist (AI Ops) from Juniper Networks were a particular focus of the investigations. To address these concerns, HPE has agreed to provide this product under license and to sell the SMB solution Instant On. The license for AI Ops is to go to up to two bidders and 55 employees are to transfer to the respective buyers. This should ensure that competition in the market is not impaired. From the closing of the Juniper sale, HPE is to have 180 days to tender the AI Ops source code for Mist under license, whereby this may only be done to a bidder "acceptable to the United States in its sole discretion". The instant-on sale therefore leads to a focus on the enterprise market. The way should now be clear for the USD 14 billion takeover.

Details of the agreement can be found at HPE. The decision appears particularly interesting in the context of the recent publication of the Gartner Magic Quadrant 06/2025 for Wired and Wireless, as both Juniper and HPE are listed as leaders. Cisco, on the other hand, had to vacate its place among the leaders.

Outlook

With the agreement with the US Department of Justice, HPE and Juniper Networks can now move forward with their plans to integrate their offerings. This could lead to a strengthening of their market position. What is exciting is that HPE will be able to provide a complete portfolio for enterprise customers in future, from switches to WLANs, routers and firewalls. This should be an advantage for many customers in terms of overall responsibility for support by one manufacturer, which could make the potential HPE and Juniper team an interesting alternative. A significant decision will be the future direction of HPE's management solutions. With Juniper Mist and Aruba Central, both manufacturers currently offer centralized management solutions. In the future, it is likely to come down to one product.

(mack)