Acting Assistant Attorney General Omeed A. Assefi, sued to block a $14 billion merger between two large technology firms, Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE) and Juniper. Along with Cisco, these two companies control 70% of the wireless networking equipment space - think the enterprise-level equipment and software that universities and large corporate campuses use to build WiFi.
Last year, when the merger was announced, customers, aka IT managers who have to run big WiFi networks, watched in mild trepidation. Such buyers frequently choose between HPE, whose key product line is named Aruba, and Juniper, who sells a system called Mist. And Mist, a newer entrant, has forced down prices and increased quality across the space, with HPE doing heavy discounts in bidding wars to win back customers. Without that competitive discipline, customers fear bad quality and discontinued business lines. Here’s an image one customer put on his blog to illustrate how HPE handles its product line in the space.