Kevin Johnson, the chief executive of networking solutions maker Juniper Networks, revealed that the firm is considering some acquisitions in Asia this year to beef up its mobile and cloud portfolio.

“Certainly if there are interesting opportunities that have strategic alignment with what we are doing and make economic sense, we’re very open to [mergers and acquisitions] and companies in Asia,” he said.

Juniper is looking to expand a strategy similar to the one competitor Cisco adopted, branching out to enterprise mobile and cloud initiatives to supplement its core switching and routing business.  Juniper made five acquisitions last year, including Ankeena Networks and handset security software firm SMobile Systems.

Juniper is sitting on a $4.2 billion cash pile so it’s not that surprising the company is looking to invest a portion of that, especially in Asia where much of its existing R&D crew is located.  This decision, however, may put some of Junipers shareholders on edge in light of a disappointing Q3 earnings call, and a relatively dismal outlook.  On Tuesday the company reported a 9 percent increase in revenue to $1.11 billion, though net income plummeted by 38 percent year-over-year to $83.7 million.

The European debt crisis caused analysts concern that Juniper’s biggest customers, service providers, may hold off spending during Q4, which will likely result in a decline compared to the fourth quarter of 2010.

Competitor Cisco is also vulnerable to uncertainties in the networking market, though it has also been busy in the M&A scene.  Last week it acquired BNI video for $99 million in cash, a deal that represents the latest expansion of its communications portfolio.

As far as mobile in the Asian market is concerned, HTC is still involved in a lengthy, international legal clash with Apple.  The International Trade Commission decided Apple did not infringe four HTC patents in a recent ruling, an unfortunate development for the Taiwanese phone maker.