Exclusive: Juniper sacks Aussie boss, staff

Juniper’s Australian vice president Mark Iles was among a number of local staff made redundant by the company this month, CRN can reveal.

The vendor is also understood to have closed its Perth office, contacts for which no longer appear on its Australian website.

The news follows reports earlier this month that Juniper was looking to cut its global workforce by 5 percent, or 500 workers; its second wave of major redundancies in 12 months. In July the vendor forecast its Q3 results would fall below analysts’ expectations, despite a better-than-expected Q2.

A source close to Juniper told CRN pink slips were handed out in Australia on Thursday October 18, including to two customer engineers and a service provider account manager. Territory account manager Guy McPhee is also understood to have been given notice.

Juniper confirmed that its Singapore-based head of commercial sales Mark Ablett was relocating to Sydney as Iles’ replacement. Ablett previously ran Juniper’s enterprise division out of Melbourne before taking the regional role.

An APAC spokeswoman for Juniper refused to comment on the reasons for Iles' departure and would neither confirm nor deny whether other staff had also been made redundant. She also refused to confirm whether Juniper's Perth office had been closed.

Earlier this month CRN reported that two senior executives in the US were leaving the company. Mark Bauhaus, executive vice president of service, support and operations, will exit Juniper at the end of the year, as will John Morris, executive vice president, strategic alliances. And last week it was revealed that Stefan Dyckerhoff, most recently Juniper's executive vice president of the platform systems division, will leave the company at the end of this month to join a venture capital firm.

A Juniper spokesperson in the US said the changes were in line with the networking vendor’s plans to remove $US150 million in expenses.

Acquisition rumours 

Meanwhile, Juniper's precarious financial situation has helped to fuel acquisition rumours.

Stock market website Benzinga reported that Juniper hired J.P Morgan to help groom the company for sale, with EMC cited among the suitors.

Earlier this month, however, EMC chairman and CEO Joe Tucci shut down the rumours, citing the storage company's close relationship with Cisco, one of Juniper's fiercest rivals. Speaking during last Wednesday's financial third-quarter 2012 analyst conference, Tucci also stressed his close personal relationship with Cisco CEO John Chambers.