Fresh off its acquisition of telecom power Alcatel-Lucent last year, Nokia is in in talks to buy Juniper Networks, according to a CNBC report.
Nokia's offer values Juniper at about US$16 billion, CNBC said citing anonymous sources, a total that exceeds Juniper's market capitalisation by about US$5 billion. The news spurred Juniper shares to climb nearly 20 percent after markets closed Wednesday.
A Juniper spokesperson told CRN USA the company would not comment on market speculation or rumours.
Juniper's networking business has been on a tear this year, boosting its revenue nearly 40 percent in the second quarter, according to IDC's most recent statistics. The company, like others in the market, trails Cisco – which controls more than half of the switching market – by a wide margin in that space, however.
Nokia acquired telecom powerhouse Alcatel-Lucent for about $16.6 billion last year.
