Juniper buys Siemens' Unisphere

Juniper, main competitor to Cisco in the high-end routing space, has acquired Siemens subsidiary Unisphere Networks in a $740 million cash and stock deal. It will pay $375 million in cash and 36.5 million shares of Juniper stock.

As part of the deal, announced today, Siemens and Juniper signed a "global partnership in the field of IP infrastructure and related systems".

The acquisition fills out Juniper's broadband access and edge routers (where it looked weaker than its competitors) and, crucially, gives Juniper access to Siemens reseller channels in 190 countries.

Historically, Juniper's main strength is in the service provider core, but in recent months it has talked up its edge capabilities. This is unsurprising as edge is seen as a sweet spot which may attract sales from cash-strapped service providers. ®