DOJ Has Final Say Over Who Buys Juniper’s AI Ops For Mist

HPE is ordered to incentivize the transfer of 55 Juniper engineers and sales employees to the winner of Mist auction.

In order to win the government’s approval for its purchase of Juniper Networks, HPE has agreed to abide by a lengthy list of requirements around the licensing of AI Ops for Mist including granting the US government final approval for up to two winning bidders for the license, and the transfer of 55 Juniper employees to one of those entities.

The government will be checking in on the progress of the sale of AI Ops for Mist beginning 20 days after the Juniper deal closes, and every 30 days after that until it has been” divested.

“HPE has agreed to grant up to two licenses to the Mist AIOps source code, with the licensees determined through an auction process that will award a license to up to two bidders,” Ben Stricker, global public relations, HPE Aruba Networking told CRN on Saturday via email.

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Starting from the close of the Juniper sale, HPE has 180 days to auction AI Ops for Mist Source Code, but only to a bidder that is “acceptable to the United States, in its sole discretion.”

The government has allowed for “three or more” organizations to bid in the event that several bidders “exceed $8 million” only two will be granted use of the source code. The HPE spokesperson said while there may be three or more bidders, there will only be two auctions and two entities licenses to use the AI Ops for Mist Source Code.

HPE will retain full ownership of Mist, the spokesman said.

While the winning bidder is not allowed to use the Mist trademark, HPE is ordered to create a commercial framework that will allow it to do business with the winning bidder and “provide transition services” that includes “any knowledge transfer assistance, software updates, engineering support for ordinary course maintenance, and bug fixes as it relates to AI Ops for Mist Source Code,” according to the judgement.

Additionally, HPE must “facilitate” the transfer of up to 30 Juniper engineers familiar with the Mist AI Ops Source Code and another 25 employees who are familiar with selling Mist AI Ops.

According to the judgement, this means providing financial incentive to encourage the employees to leave Juniper to work at whoever wins the auction. The winning bidder is not allowed to solicit additional Juniper engineers or sellers beyond a set of agreed upon employees.

HPE is also required to give the winning bidder contact information and introductions to Juniper’s original design manufacture for WLAN hardware, as well as Juniper’s distributors for WLAN in the U.S., and channel partners that work with Juniper to sell WLAN in the U.S.

The government has also outlined the terms of the auction that will take place. The winning bidder will be selected based on the “totality of the bid” which is not limited to the price that is offered, the judgement states.

The judgement has also set up guidelines for what happens in the event that more than one entity wins the auction and includes scenarios in which “three or more” bidders are allowed to buy AI Ops for Mist Source Code.

In that case, HPE will be required to set up a second auction, but those bidders will not be granted the Juniper employees or the transitional services.

If multiple winners emerge from the auctions, each one will be able to use AI Ops for Mist Source Code for its networking products and they will have the right to develop and innovate the code to create derivatives, according to the judgement.

Additionally, the winning bidders can give the right to use the source code to “end users, intermediaries, and service providers” in connection with the sale of its networking products.

Following the sale and prior to the auction, HPE is required to keep AI Ops For Mist as a viable product, that includes providing it with sufficient working capital, and lines of credit as needed, the judgement states.