USA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Bradley Justus, Lisl Dunlop, Josh Jowdy and Sandhya Taneja, Axinn
Political attention: HPE/Juniper The most notable US merger settlement of this administration (so far) arose from a case that was filed ten days after President Trump’s inauguration. On 30 January 2025, the Department of Justice filed a complaint in federal court to block Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company’s (HPE’s) proposed acquisition of rival Juniper Networks, Inc (Juniper). In its complaint, DOJ alleged that the merger would combine the sec - ond- and third-largest providers of enterprise Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN). The complaint cited sev - eral of the company’s internal documents and data to describe Juniper as a disruptive and innovative head- to-head competitor to HPE, alleging that the proposed acquisition would substantially lessen competition for enterprise WLAN services. Although the HPE/Juniper merger had largely been investigated during the Biden administration, DOJ’s decision to file its enforcement suit was made after President Trump’s inauguration. DOJ chose to bring this action even after the transaction had been approved by regulators in 14 other jurisdictions, including the European Commission and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority. As a result, the HPE/Juniper case was closely watched as an early indicator of the new administration’s enforcement pri - orities. In June 2025, DOJ unexpectedly announced it had reached a settlement with the parties five months after it had filed suit. Describing the settlement as “a result otherwise unavailable through litigation”, DOJ announced that its agreement would require HPE to divest one of its overlapping business units (a “struc - tural remedy”) and it would require the combined com - pany to license certain Juniper artificial intelligence software to independent competitors (a “behavioural remedy”). Neither remedy directly addressed the WLAN issues. The timing of DOJ’s settlement announcement was somewhat surprising. Traditionally, when antitrust agencies have reached negotiated settlements for merger investigations, they most commonly reach those agreements before filing an enforcement action, such that a consent decree may be filed with the court simultaneously with the agency’s complaint. Here, the
settlement announcement trailed DOJ’s complaint by several months, suggesting the Trump administration was more amenable to negotiation than the Biden DOJ that conducted the investigation. In any case, the HPE/Juniper settlement has been controversial. A former leader of the DOJ Antitrust Division has spoken publicly about internal disagree - ments within DOJ about whether to accept the par - ties’ remedy proposal. None of the officials who led the Antitrust Division at the time are still in office – including AAG Gail Slater, and two of Slater’s Deputy Assistant Attorneys General (the two deputies were fired directly following the settlement). The settlement agreement has been “rebuked” by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, who may consider fur - ther investigative action if Democrats win a House majority in November 2026 midterm elections. Most notably, the settlement agreement is still under review by a federal district court judge, as required by federal statute to ensure the agreement serves the public interest. Several state attorneys general have intervened in those proceedings, known as “Tunney Act” review, to challenge the settlement. The district court held a hearing in March 2026, offering oppo - nents to the settlement a rare opportunity to be heard in open court; as of July 2026, the court’s decision is still pending. Freedom of speech: Omnicom/IPG Omnicom’s acquisition of Interpublic Group (IPG) was the FTC’s first purely behavioural merger remedy under the second Trump administration and reflects the administration’s policy goals concerning freedom of speech, particularly for conservative voices. In December 2024, global advertising company Omni - com Inc announced that it would purchase competi - tor IPG for USD13.5 billion. The US was only one of 18 jurisdictions where the parties needed antitrust approval; all other jurisdictions, including the UK and European Commission, approved the transaction. In order to resolve FTC concerns, the parties agreed to conditions that prohibited them from co-ordinating with other media buying agencies in the US regard - ing advertising placement. The remedy prohibits the
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