UK Regulators Sound the Alarm on Hewlett Packard’s $14 Billion Heist: Is the Empire Strangling Competition?
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched a formal investigation into Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) audacious plan to devour Juniper Networks, a deal that’s got tongues wagging and watchdogs drooling.
CMA officials are quietly sniffing around to determine if the corporate behemoth’s planned takeover will “result in a substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the United Kingdom for goods or services.” In other words, is HPE plotting to snuff out the competition and reign supreme over the networking and IT infrastructure realm?
HPE made the announcement in January, touting the acquisition as a masterstroke in the “quest for AI-driven innovation.” But industry insiders are skeptical, warning that the deal will stifle innovation and create a monopoly in the AI-dominated cloud infrastructure market.
The $14 billion price tag, a 32% premium on the most recent closing price, only serves to fuel the fire of suspicion. The FTC in the US and the European Commission will likely take a close look at the deal, and it’s not hard to imagine regulatory bodies around the world pouncing on this corporate giant’s ill-gotten gains.
Remember Adobe’s failed attempt to acquire Figma for $20 billion last year? The writing was on the wall, and regulators pummeled the deal into oblivion. Will HPE meet a similar fate? The clock is ticking, with stakeholders invited to submit their two cents by July 3 and the CMA’s decision on whether to progress to a formal “phase 2” inquiry hanging in the balance until August 14.
