Source: AFP
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Sunday he had moved to acquire the “dominant activities” of debt-ridden French technology giant Atos and prevent their foreign ownership.
Atos, which runs supercomputers for France’s nuclear deterrent, has contracts with the French military and is the IT partner for this year’s Paris Olympics, is reeling under nearly five billion euros of debt.
Its financial woes have raised questions about cyber security at the July 26-August 11 sporting event, for which the company manages more than 300,000 credentials.
Lemaire told TV channel LCI that he had sent a letter of intent, a non-binding action, this weekend “with the aim of acquiring all the dominant activities of Atos”.
This will avoid strategic activities “falling into the ownership of foreign actors”, he added.
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His office said related activities included supercomputers, servers that use artificial intelligence and quantum computing, and cybersecurity products.
Together they generate an annual turnover of 900 million euros ($962 million) of Atos Group’s total of around 11 billion euros and employ around 4,000 people mainly based in France, the office added.
The French state has already committed to a €50m loan to Atos in a bid to stabilize the company, acquiring a preferred stake that gives it oversight of critical big data operations.
Le Maire said he hopes other French actors will join the state in this move. According to his office, discussions have been going on for several weeks with industry groups.
Source: AFP