A view of the logo of French IT consulting firm Atos on a company's building in Nantes, France, April 22, 2024. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo
PARIS: The French government has offered to buy Atos SE’s advanced computing assets for as much as €625mil (US$653mil) after an earlier offer from the state expired.
The non-binding bid values the business at €500mil and may include additional payments based on future earnings, the company said in a statement yesterday.
The offer, which expires in May, includes Atos’s artificial intelligence business as well as its supercomputers, which are used by researchers, the nuclear power industry and the military.
Atos, once one of France’s premier technology companies, is selling assets to work its way out of a debt pile that threatened its ability to continue operating.
The company is being handed over to its creditors, which are seeking to recoup as much value as possible as they try to streamline the business and restart growth.
The advanced computing assets, part of Atos’s Big Data & Security unit (BDS), are considered to be of strategic importance to the French state.
Atos said it will also launch a formal sale process for the remaining parts of BDS, including what it calls mission-critical systems and its cybersecurity offering.
Potential buyers for those parts will need to be approved by the French government, the French Finance Ministry said in a separate statement.
Earlier this month, Atos agreed to sell its Worldgrid unit to French engineering and tech consultant Alten SA for €270mil.
Atos is a key supplier to major French industries, including nuclear facilities and Paris Olympic Games, and the government has monitored its breakup closely, working to keep the most sensitive parts of the business under French control. — Bloomberg
