(Bloomberg) -- Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. can continue integrating Juniper Networks Inc. while a group of states challenge a settlement the companies reached with the Justice Department over antitrust concerns about the deal, a federal judge said Thursday.
US District Judge Casey Pitts in San Jose, California, ruled from the bench after hearing arguments in court and said he will issue a written decision later.
“There hasn’t been an evidentiary showing that there is” a need for an order here, he said. There needs to be an “irreparable harm to competition” if HPE continues integrating the deal, Pitts said. “There is not such a threat.”
The deal was closed last summer and Samuel G. Liversidge, a lawyer for HPE, said they are “quite far along” with the integration.
The June settlement between HPE and the Justice Department has been mired in controversy amid allegations that Trump administration officials agreed to the deal after a process that involved lobbying by individuals close to the president and overrode decisions made by the antitrust division.
The agency sued HPE to block the deal in January 2024, the first antitrust case brought by the new Trump administration. Days before the case was set for trial, the Justice Department announced a settlement that allowed the deal to close with only a minor divestiture of one of HPE’s businesses, known as Instant On, and a commitment to license certain Juniper technology.
Weeks after, top antitrust officials who had opposed the deal were ousted, one of whom publicly alleged the HPE settlement agreement “perverted justice.” A group of states with Democratic attorneys general then sought to intervene in the case to oppose the resolution using an antitrust proceeding that requires judges to assess whether the terms are in the public interest.
In court papers, the states asked Pitts to issue an order to stop HPE from integrating Juniper’s Mist software into HPE’s Aruba product. The companies had said publicly that they expected to release updated integrations for these products later in 2026.
Once “consumers start getting locked into new integrated products” a merger is harder to unwind and they “have lost the benefit of choice,” said Anthony Mariano, an attorney from the Massachusetts attorney general’s office.
Pitts, however, raised questions about the scope of the states’ request, saying he is concerned they were pushing for “amorphous relief” rather than keeping a “narrow” focus on the enterprise Wi-Fi market that is the source of the antitrust concerns. Pitts said it’s not clear whether HPE’s customers, or HPE itself, would bear the financial burden if the deal is later paused or unwound.
Liversidge also argued that the states haven’t offered enough evidence to warrant pausing the deal.
“There has to be proof,” he said. “That is completely missing” here.
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