5:50 PM -- Imagine our excitement today when a tipster sent us this little pic:

Let's give away the ending now: This is not the new Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) logo. Repeat: NOT.

Rather, it's an option that was considered, and rejected, as part of the "global brand refresh" launched this week, as VP of corporate communications Melanie Branon put it in an email.

There's a lot of change at Juniper: a new, cartoonless marketing campaign; a new chief marketing officer; a new CEO; and a newfound dread around Wall Street that Juniper will have trouble tightening expenses should the market get substantially worse. That last one wasn't on purpose. (See Juniper Kills the Cartoons!, Juniper Hires Ex-Nortel Exec as CMO , Kriens Steps Aside as Juniper CEO, and Juniper Tightens Its Belt.)

But no new, sparser logo, not yet. That's one path where Juniper isn't following Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), which traded its Golden Gate Bridge design in favor of -- well, one reader described it as a pair of hands making a certain gesture. (See Cisco's New Look.)

The would-be logo does look more modern than Juniper's original one, but I find it doesn't stand out. Plus, like any nine-year-old, Light Reading would have had way too much fun with the empty cardboard box that the "J" looks like. So, thumbs up on that decision.

— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading