Juniper spends $469m on two acquisitions

Juniper Networks has announced that it plans to spend about $469m to acquire two start-ups.

The company will acquire Peribit Networks, which makes technology that optimises wide-area network connections, in a deal valued at around $337m in cash, stock and assumed stock options. The company will also acquire Redline Networks, a maker of web acceleration technology, in a deal worth approximately $132m in cash and assumed stock options.

This latest acquisition will help Juniper play more aggressively in the enterprise market, where its rival Cisco Systems has dominated. The new technologies from the start-ups will help Juniper's business customers access information more quickly and securely, the company said.

Scott Kriens, chairman and CEO of Juniper said in a statement: "Juniper Networks is capitalising on its leadership position to redefine the networking market. The addition of application acceleration technologies to Juniper Networks' best-in-class routing and security solutions is a natural extension of our traffic processing strategy. We are raising the bar on what users can and should expect from the network."

Specifically, Peribit's technology will be useful in corporate networks with branch offices, because it will allow workers in these remote locations to access information at headquarters at the same speed as those who are actually working at headquarters.

Technology from Redline will also improve network performance. Redline's products sit in data centres between load balancers and web servers. The products help ease the burden on web servers by offloading traffic, thereby reducing the number of connections those servers have to handle.

The Peribit Networks acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of 2005, and the Redline Networks acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2005.

The combined revenue for both Peribit Networks and Redline Networks was approximately $40m in 2004, the company said. Last month, Juniper announced it would buy Kagoor Networks for $67.5m in cash to expand its portfolio of carrier products.

Marguerite Reardon writes for CNET News.com