HPE completes acquisition of Juniper Networks

After months of uncertainty, the decision is final: HPE has officially completed the acquisition of Juniper Networks. The $14 billion deal was ultimately approved by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) following a settlement just before the scheduled trial.

At Nomios, we’ve been following this closely. When the acquisition was first announced back in January 2024, it immediately raised eyebrows, especially in Washington. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) stepped in, concerned that the merger of two of the top three wireless networking vendors (behind Cisco) would hurt competition. But now, just days before the trial was due to begin, the parties have struck a deal.

The concessions on Mist access and Instant On exit

To satisfy antitrust concerns, HPE and Juniper Networks agreed to two key measures:

1. HPE will divest its Instant On business unit: A solution stack focused on SMBs with simple, cloud-managed Wi-Fi.
2. They’ll grant up to two licences for the source code of Juniper’s Mist AIOps platform, via an auction process.

Both moves are aimed at maintaining healthy market competition, at least from the DOJ’s perspective.

However, from a technical and strategic standpoint, this raises questions. Instant On primarily targets the lower end of the market and competes more with Ubiquiti or TP-Link than with other enterprise vendors. It’s arguably a token concession.

The Mist AI source code licensing is the more serious part. Mist is one of Juniper’s crown jewels in cloud-managed AI-driven networking. That said, the licence will be non-exclusive and limited. HPE is required to offer transitional support and allow personnel transfers of up to 30 technical staff and 25 salespeople to the eventual licensees.

In theory, that means a competitor could buy access. But in practice, that scenario seems unlikely and undesirable for all involved.

HPE isn't backing down on AI ambitions

Last week at HPE Discover 2025 in Las Vegas, CEO Antonio Neri spoke confidently about the Juniper deal, despite the pending lawsuit. Turns out, he knew something we didn’t. With the DOJ now on board, pending court approval, HPE is full speed ahead.

Neri sees the combined HPE Aruba and Juniper portfolio as a powerful step forward in the AI-driven network space. Both companies are also recognised as leaders in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for enterprise wired and wireless LAN infrastructure, underlining the strength of this merger. As he put it: “A modern network architecture is just as critical for AI as the silicon itself.”

From our perspective, this move aligns with what we’re seeing in the market. Customers want simplicity, intelligence, and integration, especially across hybrid cloud and AI data centre environments. Aruba and Juniper bring complementary strengths here, and HPE is betting big on that synergy.

What’s next?

With the acquisition now finalised, the integration of Juniper into HPE will begin, with a clear focus on modern, secure, and AI-native networking.

At Nomios, we work closely with both HPE and Juniper. We’ll be keeping a close eye on how the product portfolios evolve. We’ll also be helping our customers navigate the changes and opportunities this merger brings, especially in high-performance campus, WAN, and AI networking.

Nomios, Juniper Networks and HPE partnership

Juniper Networks has been a trusted partner of Nomios since our early days in 2004 (then known as Infradata). Over the years, our collaboration has helped drive innovation and deliver robust networking solutions across Europe.

With the acquisition of Juniper Networks by HPE now officially approved, we look forward to what this means for the future. Nomios is a long-standing Juniper partner, and we’ve also recently renewed our strategic partnership with HPE. Together, we’re confident this will open new opportunities for intelligent, secure, and AI-driven networking.

As the integration progresses, we’ll keep you informed of any relevant changes. For now, it’s business as usual. If you have questions or want to explore what this means for your organisation, we’re always here to start the conversation.