UK Watchdog Clears HPE’s Acquisition Of Juniper

The British competition regulator has mirrored last week’s move by the European competition regulator and approved a multi billion acquisition of Juniper Networks.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced on Wednesday that it “has cleared the anticipated acquisition by Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company of Juniper Networks Inc.”

It was back in January 2024 when HPE had announced that Juniper had agreed to be acquired in an all-cash transaction for $40.00 per share, making the deal worth approximately $14 billion.

UK clearance

The CMA in June 2024 had announced it was investigating the deal and had invited feedback from interested parties.

It said it would announce its decision whether to refer the merger for a phase 2 investigation before 14 August 2024.

But it is has not taken that long to reach a decision, and the UK regulator has now cleared the deal.

HPE is expecting to close the acquisition by the end of 2024 or early 2025.

The acquisition is expected to double HPE’s networking business, and to provide it with “a comprehensive portfolio that presents customers and partners with a compelling new choice to drive business value”, the company said.

Juniper shareholders had voted overwhelmingly in April to approve the deal, with less than than 1 percent voting against it.

European clearance

The decision by the UK’s CMA to approve the deal comes one week after the European Commission also said it had “approved unconditionally… the proposed acquisition of Juniper Networks Inc. (‘Juniper’) by Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (‘HPE’)”, after concluding the deal would raise no competition concerns in the European Economic Area.

However these approvals from both the European and UK competition regulators, has prompted a response from a provider of multi-service edge routing software for cloud-native carrier networks, namely RtBrick and its CTO Hannes Gredler.

“These big acquisitions are becoming the norm, especially in the telecom industry, and it’s quite alarming for customers,” said Gredler. “The market is clearly shifting towards bigger players consolidating power, which is why the CMA has tried to scrutinise the deal.”

“The bottom line is that while HPE has strengthened its market position by acquiring Juniper, it has also left a concerning dent in competition, customer choice and confidence,” said Gredler.

“Another example is Nokia’s recent $2.3 billion acquisition of Infinera, underscoring the company’s push to dominate the optical network market, boosting its market share and enhancing its competitive edge,” Gredler added.

“However, this move also reduces the number of independent vendors in the optical networking space, further consolidating market power among a few large entities and limiting customer choice,” said Gredler. “Acquisitions of this nature inevitably come with product overlap and resetting priorities by the acquiring company, leaving customers uncertain about the future of their chosen products.”

“We welcome CMA’s decision today, but we need to carefully inspect the impact of such deals on the wider market and ensure the right to fair competition and innovation,” Gredler concluded. “We’ll be watching this one closely.”