Antonio Neri
Anjali Sundaram | CNBC
Juniper Networks shares soared greater than 20% in prolonged buying and selling on Monday after the Wall Street Journal reported that Hewlett Packard Enterprise is in “superior talks” to purchase the corporate for round $13 billion.
A deal could possibly be introduced as quickly as this week, the Journal mentioned, citing individuals conversant in the matter. Juniper and HPE representatives did not instantly reply to CNBC’s requests for remark.
Juniper, which has lengthy competed with Cisco within the networking tools market, underperformed the tech trade final yr. The firm’s inventory value fell about 8% in 2023, whereas the Nasdaq Composite gained 43%. HPE rose practically 10%.
Juniper’s income shrank 1% within the third quarter from a year earlier to $1.4 billion.
A deal might bolster HPE’s efforts to problem Cisco, the main supplier of networking switches. In the most recent quarter, HPE reported 2% income development from a yr earlier. Its fastest-growing section within the quarter was Intelligent Edge, which incorporates knowledge middle switching.
HPE held $4 billion in money and equivalents on the finish of October.
HPE was shaped in 2015, when Hewlett-Packard break up into two corporations. HP, the opposite spinout, makes PCs and printers.
Since the break up, HPE has largely prevented making splashy acquisitions. Its largest deal was the $1.5 billion buy of supercomputer maker Cray in 2019.
In May, HPE agreed to promote its stake within the Chinese three way partnership H3C for $3.5 billion. An govt mentioned on the firm’s analyst assembly in October that HPE does not plan to maintain extra money over the long run.
Read the full Wall Street Journal report here.
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