Juniper CEO Expects More Big Technology Acquisitions

Kevin Johnson, chief executive officer of Juniper Networks Inc., said he expects more acquisitions by large technology companies as they step up competition against one another.

Companies are trying to add a broader range of products and services to compete with rivals that are doing the same, Johnson said in an interview today at an analyst conference in San Jose, California.

Juniper, which ranks second to Cisco Systems Inc. in the networking-equipment market, won’t expand into areas that carry lower profit margins than its current business, he said. The company plans to focus on helping carriers and corporate customers find cheaper ways to deal with exploding demand for mobile Internet services.

The economic recovery will vary in “pace and trajectory,” Johnson told analysts at the event. “But as an innovator and a share taker, our opportunities are very good.”

Juniper, based in Sunnyvale, California, fell 9 cents to $29.47 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange trading. The shares have climbed 10 percent this year.

To contact the reporters on this story: Peter Burrows in San Francisco at pburrows@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net