Juniper Networks CEO: Diversification Of Customer Base Across Key Verticals Helped Offset The Weakness In Spending By U.S. Carriers

Juniper Networks, Inc. JNPR reported its first-quarter earnings recently, which were better than analysts’ expectations and sent the company stoaring high on Friday by 8.92 percent. EPS and revenue for the company came at $0.32 and $1.07 billion respectively versus expectations of $0.31 and $1.04 billion.

Rami Rahm, Juniper CEO, was on CNBC post the results to weigh in on the numbers and to talk about the consolidation happening in networking industry.

Diversifying Customer Base

“We had a solid Q1 quarter,” Rahm said. “And I think that’s a testament to the fact that we diversified our customer base across a number of key verticals that includes the cloud, cable verticals as well as government and that helped us offset some of the weakness in spending that we are seeing in North American carrier customers.”

A Matter Of Priority

Rahm was asked is it because the telecommunication companies in U.S. are spending most of their money on spectrum that they are not able to spend on networking and infrastructure. He replied, “It’s just a matter of priority if you will.”

“There is certainly a lot of CAPEX that is going into spectrum, into acquiring various different assets and companies around the world and for that reason there was a bit of weakness, but we expect it to be temporary.”

“This is a cyclical industry at the end of the day and I think the team has just done a fabulous job of diversifying our customer base, which helps us offset some of that weakness,” Rahm concluded.