HP to acquire Aruba Networks for $2.7 billion

Despite a dismal record in big acquisitions, Hewlett-Packard is going after the wireless network gear manufacturer.

|
LM Otero/AP/File
This 2012 file photo shows a Hewlett Packard logo in Frisco, Texas.

Hewlett-Packard Co said it would buy Wi-Fi network gear maker Aruba Networks Inc for about $2.7 billion, the biggest deal for the world's No. 2 PC maker since its botched acquisition of Britain's Autonomy Plc in 2011.

HP has had a dismal record for big acquisitions, having written off multibillion-dollar acquisitions of Autonomy and technology outsourcing provider EDS, which it bought in 2008.

With the purchase of Aruba, HP is boosting its share of the wireless local area network market as more companies allow employees to access work systems through their wireless devices.

The all-cash offer of $24.67 per share is a premium of 34.4 percent to Aruba's close on Feb. 24, the day before Bloomberg reported that a deal was in the works.

Aruba shares fell 1.5 percent to $24.41 in early trading on Monday. The stock had risen about 40 percent since the Bloomberg report.

HP, which has struggled to adapt to the new era of mobile and online computing, plans to split into two listed companies this year, separating its computer and printer businesses from its corporate hardware and services operations.

Evercore served as financial adviser to Aruba.

HP shares were up marginally at $35.02.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to HP to acquire Aruba Networks for $2.7 billion
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2015/0302/HP-to-acquire-Aruba-Networks-for-2.7-billion
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe