Hewlett Packard Enterprise nearing $13bn deal to buy Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks surged in pre-market trade on Tuesday following a report that Hewlett Packard Enterprise is close to striking a $13bn deal to buy the network gear maker.

According to The Wall Street Journal, HPE is in advanced talks with Juniper and a deal could be announced as early as this week.

At 1130 GMT, Juniper shares were up 23% in pre-market trade at $37.08.

Texas-based HPE is a cloud-services provider to customers ranging from small businesses to large corporations and governments. HPE is an offshoot of the company founded in 1939 by William Hewlett and David Packard, Hewlett-Packard.

Meanwhile, California -based Juniper sells communications-network services and equipment like routers and switches to technology, telecommunications, financial and other customers.

Juniper also operates a growing artificial intelligence business, known as Mist AI, which it says uses AI and machine learning to optimize users' experiences around wireless access.