Juniper to Buy Mist Systems for $405 Million

Juniper Networks today said it will acquire wireless LAN (WLAN) startup Mist Systems for $405 million. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of this year. Juniper CEO Rami Rahim wrote in a blog post that the purchase would expand the company’s enterprise portfolio into the wireless realm and would enable it to stake claim “to AI-driven operations in the era of multi-cloud.” And in a conference call regarding the acquisition, Rahim called the purchase an “offensive move” against its networking competitors, namely Cisco and Aruba. He said that the purchase of Mist “fills a gap” in its software-defined enterprise portfolio and would enable Juniper to grow its presence in the $6 billion wireless networking market, as well as grow its campus switching portfolio.