HPE’s $14 billion purchase of Juniper overcomes UK regulator and EU hurdles

HPE’s landmark acquisition of Juniper Networks cleared two major hurdles in Europe, paving the way for the merger to be completed.

Hewlett Packard Enterprises’ landmark $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks is nearing completion following key approvals in Europe.

In June, the UK’s antitrust watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), began investigating whether the merger between HPE and Juniper would create a company that would significantly lessen “competition in any market or markets in the United Kingdom” for goods or services.

The CMA approved the deal on Wednesday.

“The CMA has investigated and approved the proposed acquisition of Juniper Networks by Hewlett Packard Enterprise,” the CMA said in a statement on 7 August.

(Related: AWS vs. Microsoft vs. Google Cloud – Q2 2024 Results Comparison)

The CMA plans to publish a full report on its decision in the near future.

HPE-Juniper will not ‘reduce competition’, says EU

Earlier this month, the European Commission (EC) approved the acquisition of Juniper by HPE.

The EU investigated the deal this summer but concluded it “would not raise competition concerns” in the European Economic Area. The Commission said the HPE-Juniper merger would not significantly reduce competition in its markets.

The EU looked in particular at the impact on the markets for wireless local area network (WLAN) equipment, the global supply of wireless access points, campus Ethernet switches and data centre switches.

“The transaction will not significantly reduce competition in such markets,” the EU said. “The merger will not raise competition concerns in any of the markets under review.”

On competition, the EU said the combined HPE and Juniper businesses “will continue to face competition from a broad range of competitors, including strong and established players in each of its markets.”

The Commission also found that the merger “would not give rise to any risk of anti-competitive practices in the form of bundling or combining.”

The HPE-Juniper merger is expected to close in early 2025.

HPE expects to close the transaction in early 2025, approximately one year after its announcement.

The merger is expected to deliver joint operational efficiencies and cost synergies of $450 million annually.

The HPE-Juniper combination is expected to create a new battleground in the networking and AI industries.