The European Commission (EC) gave Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s big money acquisition of Juniper Networks its unconditional approval after concluding the deal raised no competition issues, a decision which had been widely anticipated given media reports earlier this week.

In its probe the regulator looked into the $14 billion agreement’s potential impact on the worldwide market for WLAN kit, wireless access points and data centre switches. It also assessed the potential influence on the supply of ethernet campus switches in the European Economic Area.

Approving the acquisition, the regulator outlined its belief the deal would “not significantly reduce competition on such markets,” adding in the WLAN, WAP and ethernet campus switch segments the merged company’s position would remain “moderate”.

It also noted the two were not each other’s closest competitors in these segments today, with the combined business still set to face “a wide range of competitors, including strong and established players”.

The EC dismissed the prospect of the larger company engaging in anticompetitive bundling practices within global markets for high performance computing systems and mid-range servers.

Gaining the EC nod clears one of the regulatory hurdles standing in the way of the big money deal, which the pair touted earlier this year as having wide positive implications for the mobile industry and beyond.