San Francisco, Jan 10 (IANS): Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has announced to acquire Juniper Networks, a leader in AI-native networks, for approximately $14 billion in an all-cash transaction for $40 per share.

Upon completion of the transaction, Juniper CEO Rami Rahim will lead the combined HPE networking business, reporting to HPE President and CEO, Antonio Neri.

The acquisition is expected to double HPE’s networking business, creating a new networking leader with a comprehensive portfolio that presents customers and partners with a compelling new choice to drive business value, the company said in a statement.

“This transaction will strengthen HPE’s position at the nexus of accelerating macro-AI trends, expand our total addressable market, and drive further innovation for customers as we help bridge the AI-native and cloud-native worlds, while also generating significant value for shareholders,” said Neri.

Leveraging industry-leading AI, the combined company is expected to create better user and operator experiences, benefitting customers’ high-performance networks and cloud data centres.

“Our multi-year focus on innovative, secure AI-native solutions has driven Juniper Networks’ outstanding performance,” said Rahim.

“By joining HPE, I believe we can accelerate the next phase of our journey. In addition, this combination maximises value for our shareholders through a meaningful all-cash premium,” he added.

The new networking segment aims to increase from approximately 18 per cent of total HPE revenue as of fiscal year 2023 to approximately 31 per cent and contribute more than 56 per cent of HPE’s total operating income.

The transaction is expected to close in late calendar year 2024 or early calendar year 2025.