The French government has offered to take over part of ailing IT company Atos. The company confirmed this on Monday morning. France wants to take over specific parts of Atos that are seen as ‘strategic’.
The French state has sent a letter of intent to Atos, the IT company writes. France offers to fully take over the Advanced Computing, Mission-Critical Systems and Cybersecurity Products business units. These are seen as strategically important. No specific acquisition amount is mentioned, but according to Atos these parts are worth 700 million to 1 billion euros. The company says it welcomes the proposal. The tech company will now investigate this and expects a concrete offer from the French government by early June at the latest.
Bruno Le Maire, France’s finance minister, announced the plans on Sunday. He does not say how exactly the business units will be organized after a possible takeover. Together, these branches have approximately four thousand employees, the Reuters news agency also writes. With the takeovers, France wants to prevent these important industries from falling into the hands of foreign players.
Atos has been doing poorly financially for years. The company has been in talks since December last year to sell two business units, to aircraft maker Airbus and Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky respectively. Both discussions have now ended, CEO Paul Saleh reported earlier this year. Atos then said it was evaluating ‘strategic alternatives’. The company said on Monday it needs 1.1 billion euros to finance its operations over the next two years. Atos previously expected to need 600 million euros for the same period.
Atos is a large European IT service provider. Several Dutch government agencies are Atos customers, including Defense and the Social Insurance Bank. Various Belgian government agencies also work together with the IT company. Atos also manages the data and cybersecurity for the Olympic Games to be held in Paris this summer.
