HPE To Acquire Juniper Networks For $14 Billion (cnbc.com) 23
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced plans to buy data center networking hardware maker Juniper Networks for about $14 billion, or $40 per share, in an all-cash deal. The company expects to close the deal by the end of this year or in early 2025. CNBC reports: The acquisition would double HPE's existing networking business after years of competition. If it's completed, Juniper CEO Rami Rahim would lead the combined group and report to HPE's CEO, Antonio Neri, according to the statement. HP got deeper into the category when it bought Aruba Networks in 2015, and months later, the technology conglomerate split in two, resulting in the formation of HPE, which sells servers and other equipment for data centers, and HP Inc., which makes PCs and printers. HPE said adding Juniper to its portfolio would bolster margins and speed up growth.
Founded in 1996, Juniper spent many years chasing Cisco in the market for networking gear. Revenue grew 12% year over year in 2022, the fastest growth since 2010. In the most recent quarter, Juniper eked out a $76 million profit on $1.4 billion in revenue, which declined 1%. HPE's networking segment was the company's top source of earnings before taxes, at $401 million on $1.4 billion in revenue, which was up 41%. Coming together would lead to $450 million in annual cost savings within three years of the deal's completion, HPE said.
Founded in 1996, Juniper spent many years chasing Cisco in the market for networking gear. Revenue grew 12% year over year in 2022, the fastest growth since 2010. In the most recent quarter, Juniper eked out a $76 million profit on $1.4 billion in revenue, which declined 1%. HPE's networking segment was the company's top source of earnings before taxes, at $401 million on $1.4 billion in revenue, which was up 41%. Coming together would lead to $450 million in annual cost savings within three years of the deal's completion, HPE said.
Not _that_ HP (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Not _that_ HP (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe so; but, after the next firmware upgrade, you will be required to maintain a subscription for packet grease.
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You only need the grease subscription if you're trying to access premium content on domains such as goat.cx
When increasin sales fails just buy the competitor (Score:5, Insightful)
A big bonus for increased sales next year guaranteed!
This might not be so bad... (Score:3)
I realize HP is not exactly loved - but it's mostly because of their printer shenanigans, and consumer marketed equipment. I have found their networking gear to be very good for the price point. And their support, at least for enterprise grade hardware (again, notwithstanding printers), is quite good.
When buying network gear, I default to two manufacturers - HP, and Juniper. I just don't get along well with the Cisco way of doing things, I guess. Now while I've found HP's network gear to be solid, they don't really offer much if you need more enterprisey features. That's what I buy Juniper for. I've found their configuration languages to be strikingly similar - almost to the point where they're interchangeable. I can certainly see the synergy here.
While I'll never buy or support an HP printer again (given the choice), I'll certainly give any new "Juniper but now HP!" switches / routers a try
Re:This might not be so bad... (Score:5, Informative)
This article is about Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, which has had nothing to do with that printer company (HP Inc.) since they split apart in 2015.
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HPE are an atrocious bunch of asset strippers. I worked for them for a few years after the company I'd been out outsourced to was bought by them. Following their takeover things ran along for a while after which it became round after round of redundancies. Starting with immense pressure for voluntary redundancies followed by never ending rounds of forced redundancies. It got so bad they got rid of entire teams of immensely knowledgable, dedicated, specialists then seemed suprised that job function could
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Also posted Anonymous because reasons... So... how's the toilet cleaning business? (you never stated this was inside the US or outside so assuming you're cleaning toilets). And in this day and age, who the hell know who owns what anymore.
It must be one of those porta-potty jobs that really SUX
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Tell me more about what you don't get along with Cisco. There are plenty of reasons you might choose not to use Cisco (cost/value being a huge one, licensing, etc.) but from a technical standpoint they are still the standards-bearer of enterprise-grade networking equipment. I teach networking as well as being a practitioner so I'm genuinely interested in hearing what people do and do not like about different vendors.
Re:This might not be so bad... (Score:5, Insightful)
Cisco is great if you live completely in a Cisco environment. Out of all the major players, they tend to be the least compatible with other vendors -- mostly because they like to invent their own protocols (or Cisco versions of standard protocols) and use them as default. You can also turn on the standards version of what you are trying to do -- but the tooling will fight you, and often times those are the first to have bugs.
Cisco also retires their platforms very quickly as well. Some of their switch platforms might only be in the market for 4-5 years (and support for no more than 5 years), so they like to forklift a LOT more than other vendors. Juniper usually gets about 6-7 years out of their platforms, Extreme gets about 10, and HP closer to 10 as well.
Smartnet is also something people complain about a lot as well. The hardware is cheap (or if you ask nicely, the sales guy will give it away), BUT the maintenance will cost more than the others. When other vendors do firmware + hardware support for life, Cisco still socks you to keep support, even if you don't call in.
I teach networking as well and deploy networks. I certainly teach on Cisco gear (and base a lot of my class on the ICND) because that is what employers still want -- even if they aren't a Cisco shop.
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That's a fair enough commentary. Regarding the training piece I always tell my students we teach Cisco because 1) they probably have the most complete networking certification program available, 2) 90%+ of what you learn is transferable to any other networking equipment vendor you just need the syntax, and 3) it's what employers want regardless of what they run (see points 1 &2).
You're absolutely right about the proprietary protocol bit and pushing them. I would defend Cisco a bit on that though because
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Re:This might not be so bad... (Score:4, Insightful)
One wonders (Score:2)
DRM incoming (Score:4, Funny)
"Looks like you connected a non-HP SFP or copper cable. This router will self destruct in 10 . 9 . 8 .."
Only 14B!? (Score:2)
Here come the layoffs at Juniper (Score:2)
[Juniper] "Revenue grew 12% year over year in 2022, the fastest growth since 2010. In the most recent quarter, Juniper eked out a $76 million profit on $1.4 billion in revenue, which declined 1%. HPE's networking segment was the company's top source of earnings before taxes, at $401 million on $1.4 billion in revenue, which was up 41%. Coming together would lead to $450 million in annual cost savings within three years of the deal's completion, HPE said."
BTW, Hewlett Packard Enterprise is a completely separ
These VPN SSL... (Score:1)
the move is right, not sure about the price (Score:2)
The move is right, and a long time coming. Ever since 2009 with "project california" cisco "invaded" the turf of server makers... it took a server maker just 14 years to react.
for a long while, just alcatel (now part of nokia) and juniper were credible alternatives to cisco in the telco space, but now the landscape has changed, with arista, huawei and zte being credible alternatives.
what I am not sure is the premium HPE paid for the bussiness, I think is a tad high, but you make the mergers you can, and not
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According to Reuters [reuters.com], $40/share represents a 32.4% premium over JNPR's closing price on Monday (2024/01/08).