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The European Commission approved HPE’s proposed acquisition of Juniper Networks on August 1, 2024, and the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced its clearance on August 7. Those decisions removed UK and EU competition hurdles, but they were not the end of the transaction: HPE completed the acquisition on July 2, 2025, after reaching a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
What the UK and EU decisions covered
The regulators reviewed whether combining HPE and Juniper would weaken competition in networking equipment markets. Both concluded that the deal did not warrant blocking on the grounds they examined, though their reviews covered different geographic scopes and product categories.
| Jurisdiction | Decision and case timing | Markets examined | Key competition finding |
|---|---|---|---|
| European Union | The European Commission approved the deal unconditionally on August 1, 2024. | Worldwide WLAN equipment, wireless access points and data-center switches; EEA-wide Ethernet campus switches. | The Commission said the merged company’s position would remain moderate in the EEA, the companies were not each other’s closest competitors, and established competitors would remain. It also found no ability to harm competition through bundling or tying Juniper switches with HPE server or high-performance computing offerings. European Commission approval release. |
| United Kingdom | The CMA announced clearance on August 7, 2024, published its decision on September 17, 2024, and closed the inquiry that day. | Among the areas assessed were campus switches and wireless local area network (WLAN) equipment, as well as conglomerate effects. | The CMA found no realistic prospect of a substantial lessening of competition from the horizontal unilateral or conglomerate effects it assessed. It said Cisco would remain a significant constraint in campus switches and WLAN equipment, alongside other credible suppliers. CMA full-text decision. |
Why the CMA cleared the deal
The CMA assessed whether HPE and Juniper competing in overlapping areas could leave customers with fewer meaningful choices, and whether the combined company could use strength in one product area to disadvantage rivals in another. It concluded neither the horizontal unilateral nor conglomerate effects it examined created a realistic prospect of a substantial lessening of competition.
Other suppliers would continue to constrain the companies
For campus switches, the CMA identified Cisco as a significant constraint and named Extreme Networks, Fortinet and Arista among other credible suppliers. For WLAN equipment, it identified Cisco as a significant constraint and named CommScope, Ubiquiti and Fortinet among other credible suppliers.
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- Product Type - Electronic Switch
No sufficient power to foreclose rivals through a product bundle
On conglomerate effects, the CMA concluded the merged company would not have sufficient market power in a networking product market to foreclose competitors. Its decision also said Juniper’s UK turnover exceeded £70 million, satisfying the turnover test for CMA jurisdiction. The CMA case record sets out the review chronology and closure.
Why the European Commission approved it
The Commission examined several equipment categories across worldwide or EEA-wide markets. It found the companies were not each other’s closest competitors and that established suppliers would remain, leaving the combined business with a moderate position in the EEA. It also concluded HPE would not be able to engage in anticompetitive bundling or tying involving Juniper switches and HPE servers or high-performance computing offerings. The Commission’s approval announcement described the authorization as unconditional under the EU Merger Regulation.
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- Item Package Quantity - 1
- Product Type - NETWORK SWITCH
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Clearance was not the same as closing
- January 9, 2024: HPE announced an all-cash offer of $40 per share, valuing the transaction at approximately $14 billion in equity value. HPE’s announcement.
- August 1 and 7, 2024: The European Commission approved the deal, followed by the CMA’s clearance announcement.
- September 17, 2024: The CMA published its decision and closed its inquiry.
- June 2025: HPE announced a settlement with the DOJ. HPE CEO Antonio Neri said the agreement “paves the way to close HPE’s acquisition of Juniper Networks.” HPE’s settlement announcement.
- July 2, 2025: HPE announced that it had completed the acquisition. HPE’s closing announcement.
The UK and EU reviews therefore cleared the transaction in 2024, while the transaction itself closed the following year after the separate U.S. DOJ settlement.
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The approximately $14 billion figure was the announced equity value in HPE’s January 2024 offer, at $40 per share. It is distinct from the approximately $13.4 billion in cash consideration HPE reported for the acquisition at closing on July 2, 2025, in its 2026 Form 10-Q. These figures refer to different stages and measures of the transaction and should not be treated as interchangeable.
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- Total Number of Network Ports: 48
- Modular: Yes
- Stack Port: No
- Port/Expansion Slot Details: 48 x Gigabit Ethernet Network
- Port/Expansion Slot Details: 4 x 10 Gigabit Ethernet Expansion Slot
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- Item Package Dimension: 22.799999976744L X 16.099999983578W X 4.399999995512001H Inches
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- Item Package Quantity - 1
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Rank #3
- Item Package Quantity - 1
- Product Type - NETWORK SWITCH
- Memory - 4000. GB
- Accessories may not be original, but will be compatible and fully functional. Product may come in generic box.
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