The 24 Biggest Tech M&A Deals Of 2024

Major IT companies looking to expand their technology portfolios and private equity firms buying both IT vendors and solution providers account for many of the biggest mergers and acquisitions this year. And AI is a factor in many acquisitions. Here’s a look at the biggest tech mergers and acquisitions that were announced, completed or were still in the works in 2024.

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Despite high interest rates and continued economic uncertainty, merger and acquisition activity continued at a brisk pace across the IT industry in 2024.

A number of significant acquisition deals were announced or completed during the year involving IT vendors, solution providers, private equity firms and other players. Most notable was Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s pending blockbuster deal to buy Juniper Networks for $14 billion and the completion of Cisco Systems’ $28 billion acquisition of Splunk.

As with so much else in the IT industry today, AI technology was a major driver in many mergers and acquisitions in 2024. In addition to being a factor in the Cisco-Splunk and HPE-Juniper deals, many smaller (under $1 billion) acquisitions this year involve established companies buying startups with leading-edge AI technology.

Some of this year’s AI technology-driven acquisition deals, for example, included SAP’s $1.5 deal to buy WalkMe to boost its Joule AI copilot software, Nvidia’s $700 million acquisition of AI infrastructure management startup Run.ai; and AMD’s bid to acquire large language model developer Silo AI for approximately $665 million.

Note: This list is somewhat subjective both in terms of what’s included (and what’s not) and in the rankings. While an acquisition’s dollar value is certainly a factor in the following list, the impact of an acquisition on the IT industry and the channel may be greater – or lesser – than the deal’s price tag.

In many cases, including some deals that made this list, the value of the acquisition was not disclosed. While the cost of ConnectWise’s acquisitions of Axcient and SkyKick was not disclosed, for example, those deals were significant news for the channel.

Conversely, we did not include a few multibillion-dollar acquisition deals in the telecommunications industry including T-Mobile’s deal in May to buy substantially all of UScellular’s wireless operations for $4.4 billion and Verizon’s move in September to buy Frontier Communications for $20 billion.

We also did not include Broadcom’s $61 billion acquisition of VMware, one of the IT industry’s biggest acquisitions ever. While the repercussions of that blockbuster deal certainly continued through 2024, the acquisition itself was completed in November 2023.

Even mergers and acquisitions that don’t happen can be big news in the IT industry. In April cloud application giant Salesforce was reported to be discussing an acquisition deal with big data software developer Informatica with an $11-billion price tag. And Google was reported to be close to acquiring CRM application company HubSpot and cloud cybersecurity startup Wiz – the latter for a reported whopping $23 billion – but those deals never came to pass.

Here’s a look at the IT industry’s 24 biggest acquisition, merger and spinoff deals in 2024, starting with No. 24 and working up to No. 1. Some deals were announced last year and completed this year. Others have been announced but are still working their way through regulatory and/or shareholder approvals before they are wrapped up.

No. 24: Xerox To Buy Lexmark For $1.5B In Major Printer Industry Consolidation

On Dec. 23 Xerox announced an agreement to acquire printer maker Lexmark in a $1.5 billion deal that combines two printer industry icons, each with a big presence in the channel.

Xerox is buying Lexmark from its Chinese owners, Ninestar Corp., PAG Asia Capital and Shanghai Shouda Investment Centre. Xerox, which is financing the deal with a combination of cash and committed debt financing, expects to complete the acquisition in the second half of 2025.

Lexmark was originally IBM’s printer business before it was spun off as an independent company in 1991. It was acquired and taken private by Apex Technology and PAG Asia Capital in 2016.

Xerox said it and Lexmark have complementary sets of operations, offering strengths and end-market exposures. Combined, the companies “form a vertically integrated manufacturer, distributor and provider of print equipment and managed print services, covering all geographies and client types with a well-rounded portfolio of print and print services offerings,” Xerox said in the announcement of the acquisition deal.

“By combining Lexmark’s solutions with Xerox ConnectKey technology and advanced print and digital services, the acquisition will create a superior offering portfolio and underscores Xerox commitment to increasing value for clients and partners,” Xerox said.

Xerox said the transaction will also strengthen its ability to serve clients in the large, growing A4 color market and diversify its distribution and geographic presence, including the APAC region. The new organization will serve more than 200,000 clients in 170 countries with 125 manufacturing and distribution facilities in 16 countries. Combined, Lexmark and Xerox have a top-five global share in each of the entry, mid- and production print markets and are key players in the large, stable managed print services market, according to the company.

No. 23: Veeam Acquires Alcion, Names Startup’s CEO Its New CTO

In September data protection software giant Veeam Software acquired startup Alcion, which developed AI-based technology that combined data protection and security as a single integrated offering.

The two companies had a long relationship with Veeam investing in Alcion’s seed funding round and being the lead investor in Alcion’s $21 million Series A funding round in 2023. Alcion’s co-founders, including CEO Niraj Tolia, previously founded Kasten, which Veeam bought in 2020.

Tolia became Veeam’s CTO as part of the acquisition deal. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Alcion’s technology is being used to expand the capabilities of the Veeam Data Cloud, which provides data resilience for Microsoft 365 and Azure workloads.

No. 22: Wiz Moves To Acquire Cloud Remediation Startup Dazz

Fast-growing cloud data security provider Wiz, which is itself a startup, having been founded in 2020, struck a deal in November to buy cloud remediation startup Dazz for a reported $450 million.

Wiz said it aimed to utilize the Dazz technology to extend the company’s own cloud and AI security platform with cloud remediation capabilities. The Dazz offering focused on remediation through such capabilities as application security posture management and continuous threat and exposure management.

Dazz raised $50 million in a round of funding in July, bringing its total funding to $110 million since its 2021 launch.

This was the second acquisition in 2024 for Wiz, which in April bought startup Gem Security, a provider of real-time cloud detection and response technology.

No. 21: Palo Alto Networks Completes $500M IBM QRadar Deal

In September cybersecurity giant Palo Alto Networks completed its $500 million purchase of IBM’s QRadar assets with CEO Nikesh Arora touting that the acquisition would significantly boost the adoption of the company’s Cortex ISIAM offering.

The acquisition deal was first announced in May.

After acquiring IBM's QRadar Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) assets, Palo Alto Networks planned to migrate QRadar SaaS customers to its Cortex XSIAM (extended security intelligence and automation management) platform.

XSIAM is Palo Alto Networks’ AI-powered platform for security operations teams, which competes with SIEM (security information and event management).

The deal was seen as a sign of where things are headed in the rapidly consolidating market for security operations platforms as traditional SIEM loses favor, according to Forrester principal analyst Allie Mellen.

No. 20: Cognizant Buys Belcan For $1.3B To Boost Engineering And Development Services

In June IT services and systems integration giant Cognizant said it was acquiring engineering services specialist Belcan for $1.3 billion in a cash-and-stock deal the company said would boost its engineering and development business, as well as bring in blue-chip Belcan customers such as NASA, the U.S. Navy and General Motors.

Belcan provides critical digital engineering services for a large customer base across the commercial aerospace, defense, space, marine and industrial verticals—primarily in North America and the United Kingdom. The company has over 6,500 engineers and technical consultants.

“Belcan’s deep engineering capabilities and domain expertise across the aerospace and defense market will be complemented by Cognizant’s scale and own multidecade digital engineering expertise, providing Belcan’s blue-chip client roster access to our advanced AI, cloud and data technologies,” said Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar in a statement.

Over the two years prior to the acquisition Belcan increased its annual sales by approximately 8 percent each year. Cognizant said Belcan would add over $800 million in annualized revenue to the Teaneck, N.J.-based company’s sales.

Cognizant said that it had completed the acquisition on Aug. 27.

No. 19: CyberArk Acquires Machine Identity Firm Venafi For $1.54B

In May CyberArk, a leading identity security and access management tech provider, announced an agreement to buy machine identity specialist from private equity company Thoma Bravo for $1.54 billion.

CyberArk, in a news release on the acquisition deal, said the acquisition would “establish a unified platform for end-to-end machine identity security at enterprise scale.” Venafi’s technology enables discovery and management of machine identities in order to protect connectivity and communication involving those identities, according to CyberArk.

In an interview with CRN in November 2023, CyberArk CEO Matt Cohen noted that machine identities, such as those belonging to devices and APIs, “outstrip human identities 40-to-1” in most enterprises. Cohen said a major trend in identity security was “the integration of diverse identities into one platform,” including both human and machine identities.

CyberArk completed the acquisition of Venafi on Oct. 1.

No. 18: AWS, Google Partner Thoughtworks Acquired In $1.7B Deal

Thoughtworks, a premier partner with both AWS and Google Cloud, agreed to be acquired and taken private by private equity firm Apax Partners in a $1.75 billion deal announced Aug. 5.

Thoughtworks, which also partners with Microsoft and Databricks, specializes in providing various cloud services and AI offerings from AWS, Google and Microsoft.

At the same time the acquisition deal was announced Thoughtworks unveiled a restructuring plan that the company said would save around $90 million and would impact 6 to 7 percent of its workforce.

In June, prior to the acquisition deal, Thoughtworks’ CEO and director Guo Xiao stepped down from his posts and the company hired former Accenture executive Mike Sutcliff as its new CEO.

The acquisition, which paid $4.40 per share for Thoughtworks common stock, was completed Nov. 13.

No. 17: Thoma Bravo Acquires Darktrace for $5.3 Billion

AI and cybersecurity are two very hot segments of the IT industry. So it’s not surprising that one of the biggest private equity acquisitions of the year, announced April 26, was Thoma Bravo’s deal to buy Darktrace, a pioneer of cybersecurity AI technology, for approximately $5.3 billion.

The acquisition was completed on Oct. 1.

London-based Darktrace was founded in 2013 with the idea that AI and machine learning could be used to improve the detection of cyberattacks. The company went public in 2021 but was reportedly in acquisition talks with Thoma Bravo as early as 2022.

Thoma Bravo has been an active acquirer of cybersecurity companies in recent years with a portfolio that currently includes Proofpoint, Sophos and SailPoint, in addition to holding stakes in a number of other security vendors.

No. 16: HPE Acquires Morpheus Data To Give GreenLake Its ‘Next Major Leap’

On August 15, Hewlett Packard Enterprise said it would acquire Morpheus Data, a developer of hybrid cloud management and automation technology, to add to the capabilities of the HPE Greenlake hybrid cloud services.

HPE is incorporating the Morpheus Data technology into the HPE GreenLake cloud and private cloud product portfolio. That will enhance HPE GreenLake by providing multi-vendor, multi-cloud application provisioning, orchestration and automation functionality, as well as financial operations capabilities for cloud cost optimization.

“With the acquisition of Morpheus Data we will take the next major leap to make HPE GreenLake cloud the de facto platform for innovating across hybrid IT,” said Fidelma Russo, HPE executive vice president and general manager, hybrid cloud, and CTO, in a statement.

HPE completed the acquisition of Morpheus Data, based in Greenwood Village, Colo., on Aug. 30. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

In a separate deal, HPE announced on May 24 that it had an agreement to sell 30 percent of its shares of China-based H3C to Chinese IT provider Unisplendour for approximately $2.1 billion. The transaction was completed in October. H3C is HPE’s exclusive provider of HPE servers, storage and associated technical services in China.

No. 15: SAP Buys WalkMe for $1.5 Billion

SAP struck a deal in June to buy adoption platform specialist WalkMe in an all-cash, $14-per-share transaction valued at about $1.5 billion. SAP said the acquisition would provide a boost to its Signavio, LeanIX and generative AI offerings including its Joule copilot.

Tel Aviv, Israel-based WalkMe, headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, develops technology that enables customers to navigate technology changes by providing users with advanced guidance and automation features that enable them to execute workflows seamlessly across any number of applications.

WalkMe’s digital adoption platform works on top of an organization’s application landscape, detects where people encounter friction and provides the tailored support and automation they need to complete the job in the flow of work across any application.

“By acquiring WalkMe, we are doubling down on the support we provide our end users, helping them to quickly adopt new solutions and features to get the maximum value out of their IT investments,” said SAP CEO Christian Klein in statement. “Applications, processes, data and people are the four key elements of a successful business transformation.”

SAP announced on sept. 12 that it had completed the acquisition.

No. 14: OpenText Sells App Modernization Business To Rocket Software For $2.275B

OpenText’s $5.8 billion acquisition of Micro Focus, announced in August 2022 and completed in January 2023, was one of the IT industry’s most significant acquisition deals in recent years. That acquisition included Micro Focus’s mainframe software business.

On May 1 of this year OpenText completed the divestiture of the mainframe software and application modernization and connectivity (AMC) business to Rocket Software, a Bain Capital portfolio company, for $2.275 billion.

Rocket Software, based in Waltham, Mass., provides IT modernization and IT automation services.

OpenText said it planned to use the proceeds from the sale to reduce the company’s debt by $2 billion.

No. 13: Nvidia Buys Run.ai For $700M In AI Infrastructure Play

In April AI chip leader Nvidia sought to maintain its momentum in the artificial intelligence hardware space by purchasing AI infrastructure management startup Run.ai for $700 million.

Run.ai, which made CRN’s 2024 AI 100 list, is a Kubernetes-based workload management and orchestration software provider, which Nvidia plans to leverage to drive adoption of its DGX Cloud platform. Nvidia has collaborated with Run.ai since 2020.

The Israel-based AI startup has built an open platform on Kubernetes, which is the orchestration layer for AI and cloud infrastructure. It supports all popular Kubernetes variants and integrates with third-party AI tools and frameworks, said Nvidia’s Alexis Bjorlin, vice president and general manager for DGX Cloud at Nvidia, in a statement.

“Run:ai enables enterprise customers to manage and optimize their compute infrastructure, whether on-premises, in the cloud or in hybrid environments,” Bjorlin said.

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No. 12: Sophos Buying Secureworks For $859M

In one of the more significant signs of consolidation in the IT security space in 2024, Sophos announced on Oct. 21 that it inked an all-cash deal to buy Secureworks for $859 million.

The companies expect to complete the acquisition in early 2025. Dell Technologies is the majority owner of publicly traded Secureworks and there had been reports Dell was looking to sell the company to private equity investors. (Sophos is owned by private equity giant Thoma Bravo.)

Sophos said it plans to integrate Secureworks’ technology, including its extended detection and response (XDR) capabilities, into its cybersecurity platform.

Recent years have seen Secureworks transition from its roots as an MSSP to a vendor focused on providing XDR capabilities. Secureworks has deeply leveraged its knowledge and experience of managing security for customers in the way that it has built its Taegis XDR platform.

Sophos, meanwhile, has increasingly emphasized managed detection and response as well as its own XDR platform in recent years, with a focus on securing SMB and midmarket customers.

In a statement announcing the acquisition deal, Sophos touted the potential for delivering “complementary advanced MDR and XDR solutions” through combining the two companies. Sophos also noted that both companies operate as “partner-centric” vendors, and that an expected outcome of the merger is to generate “greater value within the channel.”

No. 11: Presidio Acquired By Private Equity Giant CD&R

In April, solution provider powerhouse Presidio agreed to be acquired by private equity company Clayton Dubilier and Rice (CD&R) for an undisclosed amount.

CD&R said it would acquire a majority stake in Presidio, five years after private equity firm BC Partners acquired the solution provider for $2.1 billion. BC Partners retains a minority stake in Presidio

CD&R said it would help Presidio, No. 23 on the CRN Solution Provider 500, expand the $6-billion solution provider’s managed cloud services and digital offerings.

“We’re going to continue to double down on cloud, AI, and professional and managed services,” said Presidio CEO Bob Cagnazzi in an interview with CRN. “We don’t think the core foundational world is dead at all. We will continue to make investments around the great partners we have in the core foundational network and data center. Those are going to be opportunities that are certainly going to drive AI solutions for our clients.”

Presidio, long been recognized as one of Cisco’s top partners, has aggressively built out its cloud and security managed services offerings over the last five years. The company now has 6,600 customers and strong partnerships with the likes of AWS, Google, Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks and Dell Technologies.

No. 10: Salesforce Buying Own For $1.9B In Data Protection Push

In September cloud software giant Salesforce struck a deal to buy data protection and management vendor Own for about $1.9 billion in cash. Salesforce is making the acquisition as customers face a growing range of cybersecurity attacks and other threats to data assets.

Salesforce expects to close the Own deal during the current fiscal 2025 fourth quarter that ends Jan. 31, 2025.

Own, formerly known as OwnBackup and billing itself as the No. 1 cloud data protection platform for Salesforce, has about 7,000 customers using its platform to archive data, secure it and run analytics, among other use cases.

"Data security has never been more critical, and Own’s proven expertise and products will enhance our ability to offer robust data protection and management solutions to our customers,” Steve Fisher, president and general manager of Salesforce’s Einstein 1 platform and unified data services, said in a statement announcing the acquisition deal.

The Own acquisition is expected to boost Salesforce’s Backup, Shield and Data Mask offerings, according to the CRM software vendor. Salesforce’s venture capital wing previously invested in Own, which was founded in 2015.

No. 9: Perficient Acquired By Private Equity Firm EQT For $3 Billion

In one of the bigger acquisitions of an IT company by a private equity firm this year, global IT solution provider and digital consulting firm Perficient announced on May 6 that it had agreed to be acquired and taken private by Swedish private equity company EQT for approximately $3 billion.

The all-cash deal amounted to about $76 per share, a 75 percent premium over Perficient’s share price at the time. The acquisition was completed on Oct. 2

St. Louis-based Perficient, ranked No. 56 on the CRN Solution Provider 500, is a global business with operations in North and South America, Europe and India. The company, which generated $907 million in revenue in 2023, has about 7,000 employees across more than 40 locations worldwide and counts about 300 of the Fortune 1000 companies as clients.

No. 8: IBM Buying HashiCorp for $6.4 Billion

On April 24 IT giant IBM said it had struck a deal to buy HashiCorp, developer of the Terraform “infrastructure-as-code” platform, in a $35-per-share cash deal valued at $6.4 billion.

IBM said that with the acquisition of HashiCorp and its suite of hybrid- and multi-cloud lifecycle management tools the company can create a comprehensive, end-to-end hybrid cloud platform “to help clients grappling with today’s AI-driven application growth and complexity.”

IBM, for example, cited the combination of Terraform’s automation capabilities with the configuration management functionality of its Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform as one example of potential synergies that will help it compete for a bigger share of the $1.1 trillion total addressable cloud market.

HashiCorp shareholders approved the deal July 15 and the two companies look to complete the acquisition before the end of the year. But the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is scrutinizing the deal and on July 15 IBM and HashiCorp acknowledged receiving a second request for information from the FTC, indicating a deeper anti-trust review, according to a Bloomberg story.

No. 7: KKR Acquires VMware’s End-User Computing Business For $4 Billion

As part of the aftershocks of Broadcom’s $69 billion acquisition of virtualization giant VMware in 2023, private equity firm KKR announced on Feb. 26 a deal to buy VMware’s End User Computing business for approximately $4 billion.

Broadcom had said it would find a new home for VMware’s EUC division, which cover’s VMWare’s VDI solutions, when it closed the VMware acquisition in November. Since then it had ordered solution providers to parse out deals for the End User Computing products, including Workspace ONE and Horizon, separately from VMware’s other cloud products.

KKR completed the acquisition and on July 1 launched the business as an independent software company called Omnissa with 26,000 customers globally and $1.5 billion in annual recurring revenue.

No. 6: ConnectWise Buys Axcient, SkyKick

In an MSP double play, ConnectWise said in September that it had acquired both Axcient and SkyKick in a move to bolster its cybersecurity and data protection service offerings.

The deal provided ConnectWise with a full-fledged MSP-focused business continuity and disaster recovery offering to go head-to-head with MSP platform powerhouse Kaseya, which acquired storage backup vendor Datto in June 2022 for $6.2 billion.

The cost of the two acquisitions was not disclosed. CRN had previously reported that the price tag for the Axcient acquisition alone was in the range of $400 million to $500 million.

“The strategy behind acquiring both SkyKick and Axcient was to further expand our cybersecurity and data protection portfolios,” Ameer Karim, executive vice president and general manager at Tampa-based ConnectWise, told CRN. “As cyber threats evolve, data protection and cybersecurity must go hand-in-hand. By integrating these two innovative companies, we’re strengthening our business continuity, disaster recovery and overall data protection offerings.”

About 300 Axcient employees, including CEO Rod Mathews, joined ConnectWise in the deal. More than 100 SkyKick employees also joined ConnectWise including co-CEOs Todd Schwartz and Evan Richman.

No. 5: Ahead Buys CDI In $3.7B Digital Transformation Channel Play

IT solution provider Ahead announced on Feb. 1 that it had acquired Computer Design & Integration (CDI) in a move the company said created a $3.7 billion global digital transformation powerhouse.

No dollar-value was disclosed for the deal that combined two of the IT industry’s leading solution providers. Both were owned by private equity companies – CDI was sold to Ahead by One Equity Partners. Ahead was No. 30 on the 2024 CRN Solution Provider 500 while CDI was No. 57.

The acquisition not only provides Ahead with a deeper portfolio of technical capabilities in hybrid IT, cybersecurity and other areas, it also gives the solution provider a major presence in the northeastern U.S. as well as expanded worldwide coverage.

No. 4: AMD Buying ZT Systems For $4.9B

In August, chip designer AMD signed a definitive agreement to buy ZT Systems, a major technology provider in the data center and cloud infrastructure space, for $4.9 billion in a move to accelerate the development of its AI hardware and software technology and more effectively compete against rival Nvidia.

The acquisition, which is slated to close in 2025, is expected to enable hyperscaler customers to “rapidly deploy AMD AI infrastructure at scale” while giving server vendors “optimized board and module designs for a wide range of differentiated enterprise solutions,” AMD CEO Lisa Su said in explaining the strategy behind the acquisition of Secaucus, N.J.-based ZT Systems.

“ZT adds world-class systems design and rack-scale solutions expertise that will significantly strengthen our data center AI systems and customer enablement capabilities,” Su said. “This acquisition also builds on the investments we have made to accelerate our AI hardware AI hardware and software road maps.”

In March ZT Systems and Nvidia announced a partnership to use Nvidia’s Blackwell GPUs within its server systems. AMD has said it will honor ZT Systems’ prior commitments.

In July AMD reached a deal to buy Silo AI, a European AI lab and developer of open-source large language models, for $665 million. The acquisition was completed in August.

No. 3: Cohesity Acquires Veritas Enterprise Data Protection Business

On Dec. 10, Cohesity completed its acquisition of Veritas’ enterprise data protection business, centered around the Veritas NetBackup product, instantly creating what the company claimed was the largest market share player in the competitive enterprise data protection market with more than $1.7 billion in revenue.

The new Cohesity is competing against Veeam, Rubrik, Commvault, Dell Technologies, IBM and others in the crowded data protection and resiliency space.

Cohesity and Veritas originally announced the acquisition deal in February. The price of the acquisition wasn’t disclosed, but at the time of the announcement a Reuters report put the valuation of the Veritas business at $3 billion.

With the acquisition, Cohesity now has a customer base of over 12,000 businesses, including 85 percent of the Fortune 100 and almost 70 percent of the world’s 500 largest enterprises. The company has over 3,000 channel and technology partners, along with strategic partnerships with the leading cloud and on-premises infrastructure providers.

“We're a product company that is going to innovate like crazy. This isn't about just consolidating and cutting costs. We're going to be innovating 5x to 10x the competitors, as we always have been, with an engineering team that's 2x the size of many of our honorable modern competitors,” Cohesity CEO Sanjay Poonen said in an interview with CRN following the completion of the acquisition.

Along with innovation, Poonen said an engaged workforce and customer obsession would be the other critical elements of making the acquisition successful.

No. 2: Cisco Completes $28 Billion Splunk Acquisition

On March 18, Cisco Systems said it had completed its $28 billion acquisition of Splunk in a move to combine the two companies’ cybersecurity and observability strengths and create what company executives described as a distinctive, AI-powered data platform.

“As one of the world’s largest software companies, we will revolutionize the way our customers leverage data to connect and protect every aspect of their organization as we help power and protect the AI revolution,” Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins said in a statement, following the completion of the all-cash, $157-per-share acquisition deal.

The two companies initially announced the acquisition agreement on Sept. 21, 2023.

Since the acquisition Cisco and Splunk have been integrating their operations and product lines with Cisco’s observability development team moved into Splunk. Splunk president and CEO Gary Steele, meanwhile, was named Splunk general manager and Cisco go-to-market president. At Cisco Live! and Splunk .conf24 events in June Robbins and Steele vowed that the acquisition wouldn’t slow Splunk’s innovation efforts.

Following the acquisition Cisco has undertaken some consolidation of Splunk and Cisco offices in the Bay Area where the two companies are based.

No. 1: HPE Buying Juniper Networks In $14B Deal That Sets Up AI Networking Battle With Cisco

Hewlett Packard Enterprise sought to step up the pressure on Cisco Systems in the enterprise networking arena when on Jan. 9 HPE announced a $14 billion deal to acquire AI-native network platform provider Juniper Networks.

HPE said the deal to buy Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Juniper would provide it with additional AI networking muscle and effectively double its networking business, creating what it called in a statement a “new networking leader with a comprehensive portfolio that presents customers and partners with a compelling new choice to drive business value.”

“We are becoming a networking company at the core. Something that probably Cisco has forgotten now for a little bit,” HPE CEO Antonio Neri said, indulging in a little competitive trash talking at the 2024 Xchange Best of Breed Conference in October.

Through the deal HPE will gain, among other assets, Juniper’s Mist AI capabilities, its campus and branch networking business, and a more robust security technology portfolio. Juniper will also bring its large pool of MSP partners with the acquisition.

The deal appears to be on track for completion in early 2025. Juniper shareholders approved the $40-per-share, all-cash deal in April and the acquisition has won approval from European Union and U.K. regulators.

One potential hurdle: A Bloomberg report in November suggested that the U.S. Department of Justice might challenge the acquisition on antitrust grounds and said that HPE and Juniper executives met with the DOJ the week of Nov. 11 in a bid to convince antitrust enforcers not to oppose the deal.

On a Dec. 5 earnings call, Neri expressed confidence that the $14 billion deal would get done. “We’re working through the process,” Neri said. “We’re confident this will close in the early part of 2025, and we are working very, very collaboratively with the DOJ. So nothing gives me pause this will not happen.”