“After careful consideration of the possible acquisition of the BDS branch, Airbus has decided not to continue negotiations with Atos regarding a possible takeover”: this is a terse two-line press release published on the Airbus website, confirmed by a similar communication from Atos, which marks the end of discussions between the two companies.
Airbus had in fact applied to take over the Big Data and Security division of Atos in January 2024 for 1.5 billion euros.
In February 2023, Airbus had also considered taking a 30% stake in the capital of Eviden, the new entity resulting from the split from Atos in 2023 and which brought together the Big Data, Cloud and Security activities of Atos but this track was finally abandoned in March. There remained the offer for the takeover of the Big Data and Security activity, which has also just fallen through.
Rough start to the year
Following this announcement, Atos is “postponing the publication of its 2023 annual results until the near future to allow it to evaluate its strategic options.” The publication of the 2023 annual results was initially scheduled for March 20 and had already been postponed for the first time. In February, Atos had already announced the end of negotiations with EPIE, the investment fund of billionaire Daniel Kretinsky. This envisaged a takeover of the Tech Foundations entity, the other branch resulting from the split from Atos responsible for recovering most of its activities linked to outsourcing.
Atos has been facing financial difficulties since 2021, and announced in 2022 its intention to separate into two entities and sell several of its activities in order to be able to find financing. Many companies have thus expressed their interest in taking over all or part of the company’s activities, which desperately needs to bring in new capital. The group faces a debt of 4.65 billion euros, a large part of which (3.65 billion) must be repaid by 2025.
In its third quarter 2023 results, Atos announced a decline in turnover of 7.2% for its Tech Foundations entity, and an increase of 2.3% for its Eviden entity. Atos employs more than 100,000 people around the world. The company was also marked in January by the departure of its new general manager, who arrived in October.