HPE and Juniper met with the DOJ a number of occasions to go over the acquisition, however the firms had no inclination the DOJ would go the path it did—actually close to its concentrate on the wi-fi market, Rahim mentioned.
The DOJ issued a Criticism “that ignores the truth that HPE and Juniper are two of not less than ten opponents with comparable choices and capabilities combating to win clients daily,” the businesses wrote. “A Criticism whose description of aggressive dynamics within the wi-fi native space networking (WLAN) house is divorced from actuality; and a Criticism that contradicts the conclusions reached by antitrust regulators all over the world which have unconditionally cleared the transaction.”
“As a part of this course of, the DOJ requests giant volumes of data, paperwork, and so forth, which we now have labored very constructively with them, together with conferences that I actually participated in. However no, now, at this level, we’re simply making ready to go to court docket,” Rahim mentioned.
“The DOJ Criticism ignores each the intensive advantages that can consequence from the proposed acquisition and the character and extent of competitors within the wi-fi networking house,” the businesses continued. “It’s a Criticism that can reinforce the established order by benefiting Cisco, which has dominated wi-fi networking for many years (and whose dominance was threatened by the acquisition); a Criticism that can hobble competitors with Huawei—which has been repeatedly recognized as a nationwide safety threat by the U.S. authorities—and thus injury the U.S.’s acknowledged purpose of lowering using Chinese language expertise in crucial infrastructure globally,” the businesses wrote in response to the court docket.
“If the federal government’s lawsuit have been to succeed, the true beneficiary wouldn’t be the shoppers, who will lose the advantages of a mixed firm, however Cisco, which can proceed to have the dimensions wanted to protect its controlling share,” the businesses wrote.
Trade analysts query DOJ’s WLAN argument
Many business watchers might need thought the upper finish of the networking spectrum—say, giant enterprise switches, routers, and different gear—can be a possible aggressive problem for the DOJ. Concern about WLAN competitors was not anticipated.