{"slug": "judge-rubber-stamps-hpe-juniper-deal-as-vendor-survives-despite-compliance", "title": "Judge rubber-stamps HPE-Juniper deal as vendor survives despite compliance failure findings", "summary": "A California district court approved Hewlett Packard Enterprise's $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks, despite findings of compliance failures and objections from a dozen states. Judge Casey Pitts of the Northern District of California granted the final judgment, upholding HPE's settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, which requires HPE to divest its Instant On wireless LAN business and license Juniper's AI Ops for Mist source code. The judge noted that the states remain free to pursue independent legal challenges.", "body_md": "The legal saga over Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) $14 billion takeover of Juniper is all but over after a California district court cleared the final hurdle, despite months of intense scrutiny over antitrust concerns and allegations of political lobbying.\n\nIn a 41-page order, Judge Casey Pitts of the Northern District of California granted a motion for entry of final judgment, approving the settlement over objections from a dozen-strong states. The approval means terms outlined in HPE’s deal with the Department of Justice (DOJ) stand. These include that the vendor has to divest its Instant On wireless LAN (WLAN) campus and branch network switching business and license out Juniper’s AI Ops for Mist source code, concessions viewed as minimal by the deal’s detractors.\n\nThe states’ opposition failed to carry the day, with Judge Pitts ruling that he couldn't reject the deal solely on the DOJ’s alleged actions, which include claims leadership overrode career antitrust staff and cut people who wanted a real divestiture. He found that the Tunney Act – which forces relevant DOJ settlements to undergo judicial review before a consent decree can be approved – did not give him a lever to kill a settlement on process grounds alone, adding that the proper channel for concerns about DOJ's conduct was “independent legal or political action.”\n\nWhile HPE came out on top, the entire review of its Juniper takeover revealed some serious issues, with the judge identifying several compliance failures.\n\nBut among the biggest failures identified by the judge was HPE’s not disclosing that John Schultz, HPE’s chief legal officer, and consultant Arthur Schwartz – one of a trio of lobbyists with close ties to the Trump administration [forced to face questions](https://www.sdxcentral.com/news/hpe-juniper-deal-back-in-court-as-maga-lobbyists-ordered-to-testify/) from the state lawyers in the case – had met with CIA Deputy Director Michael Ellis and then-Defense Under Secretary Elbridge Colby. In his deposition, Schultz also testified that he and HPE CEO Antonio Neri spoke with the CIO of the National Security Agency and that others at HPE “talked to individuals connected to the National Security Council.”\n\nHPE argued that it did not need to disclose Schwartz's contacts with CIA and Defense Department officials because the discussions were not “about the settlement.” But Judge Pitts rejected that reading, contending that the Tunney Act requires disclosure of all communications with Executive Branch officials “concerning or relevant to such proposal,” not simply those about the settlement.\n\nHPE previously denied the lobbying-related claims too, asserting in a [prior filing](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.443490/gov.uscourts.cand.443490.433.0.pdf) that “not a single witness or document supported the states’ (false) insinuations about ‘corruption’ or a ‘secret’ side agreement – an issue they spent untold hours trying (but failing) to substantiate during discovery.”\n\nDespite the setback, the states haven't necessarily reached the end of the road. Pitts noted repeatedly throughout his order that they remain free to bring an independent legal challenge to the merger, separate from the Tunney Act review he was tasked with. The judge stated that the proposed settlement “would have no preclusive effect on any other action, including any action the states might choose to pursue.”\n\nIn his closing remarks, Pitts credited the states' intervention with forcing a level of transparency that wouldn't otherwise have existed, writing that “if the states had never stepped in, the public would never have known that DOJ leadership overrode the opinions of the Antitrust Division staff, nor that the United States considered and ultimately rejected alternative settlement proposals.”\n\nCalifornia Attorney General Rob Bonta expressed disappointment over the ruling, saying: “The court called U.S. DOJ’s deal a 'limited' settlement approved under duress after the Trump Administration threatened to dismiss the lawsuit, leaving the public with no remedies at all – Americans deserve better.”\n\n“Stunningly, and amid allegations of backroom dealings, the court has also recognized that this settlement was not reached through a routine process. My office is committed to standing up for fairness and the integrity of regulatory processes and is proud to have stood up for government transparency and shed critical light on this settlement process.”", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/judge-rubber-stamps-hpe-juniper-deal-as-vendor-survives-despite-compliance", "canonical_source": "https://www.sdxcentral.com/news/judge-rubber-stamps-hpe-juniper-deal-as-vendor-survives-despite-compliance-failure-findings/", "published_at": "2026-08-14 12:53:39+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-14 13:08:47.349874+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy"], "entities": ["Hewlett Packard Enterprise", "Juniper Networks", "Casey Pitts", "Department of Justice", "John Schultz", "Antonio Neri", "Rob Bonta"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/judge-rubber-stamps-hpe-juniper-deal-as-vendor-survives-despite-compliance", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/judge-rubber-stamps-hpe-juniper-deal-as-vendor-survives-despite-compliance.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/judge-rubber-stamps-hpe-juniper-deal-as-vendor-survives-despite-compliance.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/judge-rubber-stamps-hpe-juniper-deal-as-vendor-survives-despite-compliance.jsonld"}}