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Juniper offers cost cuts, dividend after Elliott pressure
2014-02-21 08:37:00| Telecompaper Headlines
(Telecompaper) Juniper Networks announced plans for significant cost reductions and a major return of capital to shareholders. The company targets a reduction of USD 160 million in operating costs by Q1 2015 compared to Q4 2013, helping it achieve a 25 percent operating margin in 2015. This is an improvement of 580 basis points from 2013. CEO Shaygan Kheradpir will lead a Cost Control Committee, and Juniper hired McKinsey to help with the restructuring. Juniper also committed to return a minimum USD 3 billion to shareholders over the next three years through a combination of share repurchases and dividends. This will include up to USD 2 billion in shares repurchased by Q1 2015, of which USD 1.2 billion under an accelerated buyback starting soon. Juniper will also initiate a quarterly cash dividend of USD 0.10 per share beginning in the third quarter of 2014, with the expectation to increase the dividend over time. The shareholder remuneration will be funded by a combination of existing cash and newly issued debt. Finally, the company announced the appointment of Kevin DeNuccio, a former Cisco executive, and Gary Daichendt, the former CEO of Redback Networks, as new independent directors, while Juniper's own former CEO Kevin Johnson will retire from the board at the end of February. The new strategy follows a review by the company's new CEO as well as pressure from shareholders. Jesse Cohn, portfolio manager at shareholder Elliott Management, welcomed the changes, saying it was "an incredibly positive development".
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Category:Telecommunications