Days after throwing its weight around at Riverbed Technology and Celesio, the hedge fund Elliott Management has begun a campaign for change at Juniper Networks, the networking equipment company.
Elliott, the hedge fund run by Paul Singer, wants Juniper to cut costs, return money to shareholders and streamline its product offerings, according to a 21-page presentation. The move sent Juniper’s share price up 10 percent, to $25.90, in morning trading on Monday.
These “much-requested†suggestions would help to lift the share price to $35 to $40 a share, according to Elliott, which has has requested to meet with management. The hedge fund’s investment in Juniper â€" a 6.2 percent stake â€" is one of its biggest activist positions to date.
The move from Elliott comes just a few weeks after Shaygan Kheradpir took over as Juniper’s chief executive after the retirement of Kevin Johnson. He was previously the chief technology officer at Barclays.
Juniper, which is based in Sunnyvale, Calif., was founded by Pradeep Sindhu, the top scientist at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center. It has a market value of $13 billion.
The hedge fund and its top technology portfolio manager, Jesse Cohn, publicly announced their proposals in an effort to steer Mr. Kheradpir’s thinking about Juniper’s strategy, according to people briefed on the matter. Elliott believes that its suggestions are in line with what Wall Street analysts and investors have advocated for years.
“It’s a chance to reframe the story,†one of these people said.
