- Cloud and digital services consulting firm HCLTech is buying HPE's Telco Solutions business
- The deal is the second between the two companies in as many years
- Telecom is a key growth vertical for HCLTech, which competes with the likes of IBM, Tata and Cognizant
HCLTech apparently found dealing with HPE so nice it decided to do it twice. After acquiring a large swath of HPE’s Communications Technology Group (CTG) in 2024, the IT services and consulting company has come back around to scoop up HPE’s Telco Solutions business to strengthen its telco engineering and network-focused AI muscle.
Around 1,500 workers will transfer as part of the deal, which is reportedly worth $160 million.
Anil Ganjoo, HCLTech’s chief growth officer and TMT chief, stated the transaction will allow the company to help telcos speed their transition to techcos and allow HCLTech to deliver “higher-value, IP-led services and non-linear growth.”
HCLTech has already integrated the assets it purchased from HPE in 2024, which spanned business support systems (BSS), network applications, service cloudification and data intelligence. With the Telco Solutions business, it’s also gaining capabilities across the operations support systems, home subscriber server and 5G subscriber data management domains. HPE’s relationships with top global CSPs will also transfer.
HCLTech competes with the likes of IBM, Tata Consultancy Services, Cognizant, Accenture, Infosys and Capgemini, providing IT and consulting services in the cloud and digital transformation realm. Clients include big names such as Unilever and Volvo. A recent case study indicates it has also worked with an unnamed Tier-1 wireless provider in Japan and CEO C. Vijayakumar said during a recent earnings call HCLTech was recently tapped by a large U.S. telecom company to launch an Nvidia-based emerging tech AI lab.
Vijayakumar pointed to telecom as a key growth vertical on the call and said the CTG assets it acquired last year have "given us the opportunity to address the needs of a much larger global telecom client base with a richer value proposition."
Following the deal’s close, HCLTech said it plans to use the new assets to offer solutions for network transformation, Network as a Service (NaaS) and AI-led autonomous networking.
What it means for HPE
It's worth noting that the HCLTech deal comes just a few months after HPE closed its acquisition of Juniper Networks and weeks after HPE unveiled its first integrated product set following the transaction. So, what exactly does this divestiture mean for HPE and its plans for the telco market?
Rami Rahim, HPE EVP, President and GM for Networking, said in a blog the company plans to focus on "high-growth, high-margin parts of the market." In other words, it has zeroed in on routing, switching and network security solutions.
"We are uniquely positioned to help CSPs unlock the transformative potential of AI-native networking, robust security, and agile, open architectures," he wrote. "We are also looking ahead to 6G, where we expect to be a major player in xHaul networks, in-network AI inference, edge compute and network security.
12/18/25 4 pm ET This story has been updated to include details from HPE's executive blog post.