The French authorities stated Tuesday that it was transferring to guard Atos, a too-big-to-fail French know-how large that manages knowledge and cybersecurity for the nation’s nuclear weapons applications and army in addition to for the upcoming Paris Olympics, as the corporate veered towards monetary uncertainty.
Shares of Atos tumbled greater than 20 % after Airbus, the European aerospace large, stated it had referred to as off talks to purchase Atos’s cybersecurity property for as much as 1.8 billion euros (about $2 billion) following a evaluate of the corporate’s funds. Later, Atos stated it might postpone its earnings launch, scheduled for Wednesday, “with a purpose to consider strategic choices.”
The French finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, stated the federal government had been carefully watching the scenario and was engaged on “a nationwide resolution” to guard Atos. “All of the pursuits of France can be preserved,” Mr. Le Maire stated, including that he would use all means at his disposal “to ensure the safety of strategic actions.”
Atos just isn’t a outstanding identify among the many world’s greatest tech corporations, however in France it performs a strategic function in nationwide safety and the administration of delicate knowledge within the civil and army sectors. It has grown right into a European knowledge and supercomputing powerhouse over the past decade, working in 69 international locations and using 95,000, with annual income of €11 billion.
A lot of that progress relied on a debt-financed spending spree of acquisitions, lots of them when Atos was led by Thierry Breton, a former finance minister and the present European Union commissioner for inner markets. The corporate now faces €3.65 billion in loans and bonds that should be repaid or refinanced by the tip of 2025.
In 2021, Atos’s share value was hit after stories that it might purchase an American competitor, DXC Expertise, for $10 billion. The deal was scrapped a month later amid investor considerations, and Atos was dealt an additional blow after auditors discovered accounting errors at two of its U.S. operations. Atos additionally did not sustain with the rise of cloud computing by opponents like Amazon and Microsoft, additional undermining investor confidence. The corporate has gone by way of three chief executives in as a few years.
In a assertion on Tuesday, Atos stated it was “actively evaluating strategic options that can consider the sovereign imperatives of the French state.” Its shares, which topped €75 three years in the past, traded Tuesday at simply €1.74.
Its most prized property turned the goal of a takeover bid final 12 months by Daniel Kretinsky, a Czech telecommunications billionaire whose efforts had been fiercely opposed by French politicians — a few of whom have referred to as for nationalizing Atos to maintain it in French arms.
Mr. Le Maire stopped in need of calling for nationalization. However he stated the federal government’s precedence was to “determine options to stabilize its monetary scenario and provides all the required visibility to stakeholders, specifically the corporate’s staff.”
Amongst different issues, Atos owns the supercomputer that permits the French army to simulate nuclear bomb exams, after the federal government outlawed bodily testing in 1996. Électricité de France just lately chosen an Atos entity, Eviden, to supply management programs for six nuclear energy reactors that the French authorities plans to construct within the coming decade.
Atos software program is used for French Rafale fighter jets and even the safe phone strains of the French armed forces. Airbus, which builds fight plane and army helicopters, had expressed curiosity in Atos’s large knowledge and cybersecurity property because it expands its program amid an increase in European protection budgets.
In a terse assertion on Tuesday, Airbus stated it was ending its discussions with Atos, however didn’t give a cause.
Atos’s software program and computing energy are additionally used for France’s nationwide tax and well being businesses. The corporate just lately received the contract to host private knowledge and supply cybersecurity for the Paris Olympics this summer time.
