Hewlett Packard Enterprise is planning to buy Juniper Networks in a deal valuing the network gear maker at about USD 13 billion as per a Reuters report. A deal between the two companies could be announced as early as this week, the report added.
Shares of Hewlett Packard fell 7.7 per cent, while Juniper jumped 21% in extended trading.
The deal would help bolster the nearly 100-year-old technology company’s artificial intelligence (AI) offerings, according to a WSJ report earlier in the day.
Hewlett Packard declined to comment on the WSJ report, while Juniper Networks did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Last year, server maker HPE said it was rolling out a cloud computing service designed to power AI systems similar to ChatGPT.
Juniper’s high-performance network and service offerings include routing, switching, Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi), network security, AI-enabled enterprise networking operations (AIOps), and software-defined networking (SDN) technologies.
Livemint last year reported that HPE India has the highest number of employees outside the US, accounting for more than 25% of the total company headcount. India is a large and growing economy, and we are excited about the government’s efforts to modernize infrastructure. With everything being digitized, technology will continue to play a significant role.
In 2019, HPE announced a $500 million investment plan for India over five years. As we approach the end of that period, how do you evaluate the execution and results of that investment?
The investments we made in India focused on growing our presence in R&D and services. We have significantly expanded our team in India over the past few years. In the next phase, we plan to invest in manufacturing. We intend to produce high-volume servers worth $1 billion in the first five years at a manufacturing site in Manesar, Haryana. This manufacturing operation will support the growing demand from customers in India and strengthen HPE’s global supply chain. We are also considering investments in networking and computing.