Monday Morning Impact – January 15

Published On: January 14, 2024Categories: Buzz

HPE to Acquire Juniper Networks

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Juniper Networks have announced an agreement under which HPE will acquire Juniper in an all-cash transaction worth approximately $14 billion.

The acquisition is expected to double HPE’s networking business, largely by expanding HPE’s position in AI and hybrid cloud, thereby supporting HPE’s edge-to-cloud strategy and establishing an AI-native environment based on a cloud-native architecture. Furthermore, the combination with HPE Aruba Networking and HPE AI interconnect fabric is expected to accelerate innovation.

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

“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. “I am excited to welcome Juniper’s talented employees to our team as we bring together two companies with complementary portfolios and proven track records of driving innovation within the industry.”

Under the terms of the agreement, which has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of HPE and Juniper, Juniper shareholders will receive $40.00 per share in cash upon the completion of the transaction. The purchase price represents a premium of approximately 32% to the unaffected closing price of Juniper’s common stock on January 8, 2024, the last full trading day prior to media reports regarding a possible transaction.

The transaction is currently expected to close in late calendar year 2024 or early calendar year 2025, subject to receipt of regulatory approvals, approval of the transaction by Juniper shareholders, and satisfaction of other customary closing conditions.

Channel Impact^®
The combination of HPE and Juniper is expected to advance HPE’s portfolio mix shift toward higher-growth solutions and strengthens its high-margin networking business, accelerating HPE’s sustainable profitable growth strategy.

Tech Industry Employment Increased in December

Tech industry employment gains were positive for the month in contrast to several lagging measures, a continuation of the mixed signals era, according to analysis of the December Bureau of Labor Statistics report by CompTIA, a suburban Chicago-based industry association.

Tech industry employment experienced a net increase of 12,922 new positions, the largest monthly gain since April 2023. Jobs were added in four of the five primary sub-sectors, led by technology services and software development (+8,500) and cloud infrastructure and related positions (+4,400). Tech manufacturing led by semiconductors also had a solid month (+1,600).

Technology occupations throughout the economy declined by 79,000 positions last month. The unemployment rate for tech occupations increased to 2.3%. In comparison the national unemployment rate stands at 3.7%.

“Tech employment remains on solid footing,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA. “Despite the ongoing pattern of mixed signals in the labor market tracking data, the optimistic outlook continues to hold.”

Job postings for tech occupations also fell back. Active job postings for tech positions totaled nearly 364,000, including 142,295 newly added by employers in December. Employer hiring for artificial intelligence job roles and specialized skills continues to exceed the 10% threshold as a percentage of all tech job postings.

Industries with the largest volumes of tech job postings included professional, scientific and technical services; administrative and support services; and manufacturing. Among metropolitan markets, Washington, New York, Dallas, Chicago, and Los Angeles had the most tech job openings, while Pittsburgh and Providence recorded modest month over month gains in postings.

Channel Impact^®
The results demonstrate growth in tech services, software development and cloud infrastructure.

SonicWall Acquires Cloud Security Provider

SonicWall, a Milpitas, California-based cybersecurity company, has announced the acquisition of Banyan Security, a provider of security service edge (SSE) solutions.

“For years, firewalls have been the cornerstone of cybersecurity defenses,” said SonicWall President and CEO Bob Vankirk. “However, with the rise of cloud computing and secure access service edge (SASE), the industry is shifting its focus to more comprehensive and flexible approaches that include SSE and ZTNA as a necessity. Together, SonicWall and Banyan Security will provide cloud-based secure access service edge (SASE) solutions that empower partners to deliver a security architecture for any stage of their customers’ evolving cloud journey.”

The acquisition is intended to align with SonicWall’s strategy — which includes network, endpoint, wireless, cloud email, and threat intelligence — under a multi-tenant portal that offers unified threat visibility.

With remote work continuing to be an important development, secure access to critical business applications has become increasingly complex, thereby driving the adoption of Zero Trust models.

The announcement comes on the heels of SonicWall’s acquisition of Solutions Granted, Inc. (SGI), which provides managed detection and response services for Managed Service Providers and Managed Security Service Providers.

Terms of the Banyan Security acquisition were not disclosed. The acquisition was completed on December 26th.

Channel Impact^®
This acquisition strengthens SonicWall’s portfolio by adding Zero Trust security for companies transitioning away from legacy architectures in favor of SSE solutions, including Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA).

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