The acquisition of Juniper Networks would help HPE – the nearly century-old tech company – position itself better in the artificial intelligence (AI) era. WSJ sources revealed the deal could be announced this very week.
HPE provides cloud services to many clients, from small businesses to large organizations and governments. HPE is a spin-off of Hewlett-Packard (HP) – the iconic American tech company founded by William Hewlett and David Packard in 1939.
HPE and Juniper currently have market capitalizations of nearly $23 billion and $9.6 billion, respectively. Juniper specializes in selling networking equipment and services like routers, switches to customers in telecoms, tech, finance, etc. Juniper also runs an AI business – Mist AI, which uses AI and machine learning to optimize wireless user experiences.
In 2015, HP split into HPE focusing on enterprise services and HP on PCs and printers.
If successful, the HPE-Juniper deal would be one of the largest tech acquisitions recently. Tech M&A has slumped amid Washington’s increasing antitrust scrutiny.
According to the WSJ, another deal is also in the works – software designer Synopsys is negotiating to acquire Ansys for $35 billion in cash and stock.
