July 22 (Bloomberg) -- International Business Machines Corp. plans to sell Juniper Networks Inc. switches and routers under its own brand, building on a partnership with the network- equipment maker.

IBM, the world’s largest provider of computer services, will rebrand Juniper products under an original equipment manufacturing agreement, Armonk, New York-based IBM said today in a statement. IBM already resells some Juniper products. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

IBM has similar contracts with Brocade Communications Systems Inc. and other companies, using the agreements to pitch a broader range of products. Juniper, meanwhile, sees the deal as an incentive for IBM to sell more of its products, said Juniper Executive Vice President Hitesh Sheth.

“IBM wants to have maximum reach into their customer base, and they can do that better with IBM-branded products,” Sheth said in an interview. “Equally important: We also get a broader reach. They are more likely to be more aggressive selling products with their own brand.”

Juniper, based in Sunnyvale, California, doesn’t have an exclusive agreement with IBM and may strike similar deals with other companies, Sheth said.

IBM dropped $1.47 to $115.57 at 4:01 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Juniper fell 38 cents to $25.50 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Juniper is the second-biggest maker of routers and switches -- products that direct the flow of data traffic. Large companies account for most sales of switches, which they use to run corporate networks. Phone carriers and Internet service providers mostly purchase routers.

Juniper trails San Jose, California-based and Cisco Systems Inc. in networking-equipment sales.

To contact the reporters on this story: Katie Hoffmann in New York at khoffmann4@bloomberg.net; Rochelle Garner in San Francisco at rgarner4@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 22, 2009 16:12 EDT