HPE's $14 billion Juniper acquisition could face state challenge

By Jody Godoy (Reuters) -A group of U.S. states said they may seek to block Hewlett-Packard Enterprise's $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks and have asked a judge for permission to intervene in a case where the U.S. Department of Justice has proposed to settle and let the deal move forward. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and Democratic attorneys general from six other states and Washington, D.C. said in court papers on Tuesday that they want to probe what they called suspicious circumstances around the settlement.  "The public deserves transparency on what happened in this case and to ensure that high-ranking government officials follow the law during merger reviews, make decisions on the merits and are not influenced by politically connected lobbyists," Weiser said. Weiser, who was a DOJ antitrust attorney earlier in his career, is running for governor of Colorado in 2026. If U.S. District Judge Casey Pitts in San Jose, California allows the states to intervene, they could seek an order for the companies to pause integrating their businesses. Shortly after President Donald Trump took office in January, the DOJ sued to block the deal, alleging it would stifle competition and lead to only two companies – Cisco Systems and HPE – controlling more than 70% of the U.S. market for networking equipment. The DOJ agreed to drop its claims in June ahead of a scheduled trial in exchange for HPE agreeing to license some of Juniper's AI technology to competitors and sell off a unit that caters to small and mid-sized businesses. Last month, Colorado was among a group of states that called on Pitts to probe whether the deal addressed the DOJ's initial concerns about the deal and what role lobbyists with ties to the Trump administration played in the settlement. (Reporting by Jody Godoy in New York; Editing by Joe Bavier)

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