Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) now closed acquisition of Juniper Networks has come with some fresh backroom baggage that could upend what the newly enhanced HPE was looking to bring to market.

The upheaval surrounds HPE’s formation of a board “strategy committee” that will be run by Robert Calderoni. This committee is being tasked with driving “shareholder value,” a task that is important for activist investment firm Elliott Investment Management, which is behind the strategy committee’s formation.

Calderoni has an extensive history in the technology space, having previously served in executive roles at Ariba, SAP, and Citrix, and in various board roles Citrix, LogMeIn, and – more pertinent to this latest move – at Juniper.

Calderoni’s appointment was part of an agreement between HPE’s board and Elliott, with the new strategy board also housing three additional members. Calderoni will also join HPE’s Integration Committee that is working on the Juniper integration.

Elliott’s influence stems from its move earlier this year in taking a substantial stake in HPE, a move that came during uncertainty over HPE gaining government approval to purchase Juniper. Elliott’s investment reportedly included the investment firm sending a letter to HPE’s board asking for the removal of HPE CEO Antonio Neri.

The agreement also calls for “information-sharing” between HPE and Elliott to foster “an ongoing dialogue.” Elliott can now also appoint a representative to HPE’s board at its discretion.

Elliott Investment Management has a history of using a substantial investment stake to sway leadership at technology companies, including a hand in AT&T ditching long-time CEO Randall Stephenson for John Stankey.

Everyone involved in the HPE agreement put a positive spin on the moves but included potentially company altering verbiage.

Calderoni expressed excitement toward the new tasks, adding, “I understand the urgency and am energized by the magnitude of the opportunity ahead.”

Jason Genrich, Elliott partner and senior portfolio manager, touted “positive dialogue” with HPE’s board and that the strategy committee “will help HPE identify meaningful operational and strategic opportunities for shareholder value creation.”

Prior to the Juniper deal gaining government approval, Neri told investors that the $14 billion deal was “the fastest path to increase in our shareholder value,” and during a post-close analyst call increased annual run-rate synergy expectations from $450 million to $600 million within 36 months of close. But Neri also admitted that HPE was ready in case the deal fell apart.

“We also have seen and explore a number of other options if the Juniper deal doesn't happen, and that’s inclusive of capital return and other portfolio actions,” Neri said.

HPE has also already moved to slash around 5% of its workforce, which Neri explained would “better align our cost structure to our business mix and long-term strategy.”

What’s on the line?

This latest upheaval comes as HPE was just coming to grips with the Juniper acquisition.

HPE and Juniper executives during the post-close call provided a high-level view on integration plans, but a minimal amount of real insight into long-term market plans.

Neri and Rami Rahim, who was Juniper CEO and is now president and GM of HPE’s Juniper-infused networking business, both repeatedly spoke of a “thoughtful” integration process that reduces market disruptions.

“Our first integration priority is therefore to maintain continuity momentum across the traditional HPE, Aruba, and Juniper networking businesses,” Neri said. “We are fully committed to supporting the lifecycle of existing products and protecting the investments our customers have made. No customer will be left behind.”

This priority will at some point cross paths with Neri’s second priority to “converge our cloud product roadmaps and integrate our go to market coverage strategies.”

“Over time we will align our offerings around a single, secure AI-native and cloud-native architecture, always guided by our commitment to customer-centric innovation,” Neri explained. “Importantly, HPE has no overlaps with Juniper solutions in routing, high-performing data center switching, and firewall security, all areas that will bring additional value to our customers. While there is some product-level overlap in our campus and branch portfolios, each company brings architectural strength that addresses the different customer segment needs, which expands our total addressable market.”

This was highlighted by Neri stating HPE Aruba Networking and HPE Juniper Networking would be go-forward product brands from the new HPE Networking business.

André Kindness, principal analyst for network serving infrastructure and operations at Forrester Research, told SDxCentral in an interview that the speed of this integration will be important in the market.

“Those two were dropping off – more so on the HPE side than the Juniper side,” Kindness said of conversations he was having with enterprises. “Juniper was doing a good job of rolling out new features or functionality and moving to bolster their lineup in case they weren’t going to combine, where HPE was a little quieter about anything. It just seemed customers on the HPE side were definitely more nervous than on the Juniper side. If the deal wasn't going to happen I think customers going down the Juniper route were comfortable because the company was still moving ahead on development and supporting their current and investing in new capabilities. But HPE customers, or people looking at that solution or refreshing, I'd say, the last two months have shown probably double the amount of anxiety.”

Kindness also reiterated past comments on what might emerge from an integrated HPE-Juniper offering, adding that the required divestiture of HPE’s Instant On wireless LAN (WLAN) campus networking and switching business would likely have a low impact.

“They haven't integrated access that well at this point into their SASE [secure access service edge] area, so it's going to take some time,” Kindness said. “I think supporting GreenLake is going to be the primary aspect of it from the Juniper side, their Juno OS and their data center switches, and then the capabilities of selling to the telecoms, that'll probably take precedence.”