Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is reportedly close to acquiring Juniper Networks.
Reuters and the WSJ report HPE is in “advanced talks” to buy the network gear maker in a deal thought to be valued at around $13 billion.
A deal between the two companies could be announced as early as this week, a source told Reuters.
The companies have yet to comment on the reports.
Founded in 1996 and based in Sunnyvale, California, NYSE-listed Juniper provides networking products, including routers, switches, network management software, network security products, and software-defined networking (SDN) technology.
HPE offers switches via its Aruba Networks unit – acquired in 2015 just prior to Hewlett Packard's split into two companies. The deal for Juniper will reportedly position HPE better to make inroads in the artificial intelligence industry.
Since it was broken off from HP in 2015, HPE’s acquisitions include SGI, Cray, SimpliVity, and Nimble Storage. This would be the HPE’s largest deal since becoming a standalone company by a wide margin and one of the largest in HP’s long history.
