Hewlett Packard Enterprise nears $13 billion deal to buy Juniper Networks – source

(Reuters) -Hewlett Packard Enterprise is in talks to buy Juniper Networks in a deal valuing the network gear maker at about $13 billion, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday.

A deal between the two companies could be announced as early as this week, the source said.

Shares of Hewlett Packard fell 7.7%, while Juniper jumped 21% in extended trading.

The deal would help bolster the nearly 100-year-old technology company’s artificial intelligence (AI) offerings, according to a WSJ report earlier in the day.

Hewlett Packard declined to comment on the WSJ report, while Juniper Networks did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Last year, server maker HPE said it was rolling out a cloud computing service designed to power AI systems similar to ChatGPT.

Juniper’s high-performance network and service offerings include routing, switching, Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi), network security, AI-enabled enterprise networking operations (AIOps), and software-defined networking (SDN) technologies.

(Reporting by Shivani Tanna and Jyoti Narayan in Bengaluru, Anirban Sen in New York; Editing by Maju Samuel, Rashmi Aich and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

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