The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Saturday it has reached a settlement with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), clearing HPE’s $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks. As part of the DOJ-HPE Juniper Deal, HPE is required to divest its “Instant On” WiFi network business geared toward small businesses.
The settlement, reached just days before trial, requires HPE to sell its global Instant On campus and branch WLAN business—including assets, intellectual property, R&D personnel, and customer relationships—to a DOJ-approved buyer within 180 days. In addition, the agreement mandates that the combined firm license key Juniper software to independent competitors, including an auction of Juniper’s AIOps for Mist source code.
“This settlement ensures that small businesses and critical industries will continue to have competitive choices in secure, enterprise-grade networking,” said DOJ Antitrust Division head Gail Slater. The DOJ emphasized the deal preserves competition that litigation could not otherwise guarantee.
