French IT services provider Atos has entered talks with Airbus to sell its tech security division in an effort to ease its financial burdens.
In a market update this morning, Atos Group said it received two letters indicating non-binding interest in its Big Data & Security division, but said only Airbus offered to buy the entire business unit.
The aerospace giant is expected to offer between €1.5-1.8 billion for BDS and has long publicized its aspiration to grow the cybersecurity arm - a goal it reaffirmed to The Register today.
Today's news comes a year after Airbus entered the due diligence phase of buying 30 percent of Eviden, Atos Group's separate company comprising the digital, and BDS businesses.
The plans were swiftly canned after an investment management firm's boss pleaded with the company to end the talks, saying the move would essentially be a bailout of Atos' lossmaking legacy IT services biz.
A joint bid for BDS was launched earlier in September 2022, valued at €4.2 billion, from tech consultancy Onepoint and Brit private equity fund ICG, but the board unanimously rejected it.
Between 2024 and 2029, the company will face a series of maturing debts totaling €4.8 billion.
The move to dispose of other business assets, first floated in November, marks a change in strategy amid uncertainty about whether an agreement can be reached with EP Equity Investment over the sale of its Tech Foundations perimeter, the part of Atos that houses it's legacy businesses.
The announcement sent the company's stock price tumbling, and prompted the resignation of then-CEO Rodolphe Belmer, followed days later by that of Belmer's CFO, Stéphane Lhopiteau.
The sale of ATF to EPEI, announced in August 2023, was slated to cost €2 billion, broken down into €100 million for Tech Foundations plus €1.9 billion of the division's debt, but a conclusion has yet to be reached.
In October 2023, Les Republicans' Olivier Marleix and the Socialist Party's Philippe Brun suggested the government nationalize Atos on security grounds, since the BDS perimeter - part of Eviden - manages highly sensitive projects.
The French army's telephone system and various communications and combat software for the navy were cited as the main concerns.
BDS also develops encryption keys, the Scorpion Combat System, and software for urban surveillance projects, the emergency services, and domestic intelligence research, among other things.
Today's announcement also revealed a shuffled board of directors, with Françoise Mercadal-Delasales and Jean-Jacques Morin appointed for their skills in finance and major transformation projects.
It has been a turbulent time at the top of Atos, which has seen three CEOs take the helm in as many years.
Yves Bernaert is the current serving leader, appointed in October 2023 to complete the Eviden-ATF separation.
He followed Nourdine Bihmane, who took over from Belmer in 2022 and is now in the position of deputy CEO. The rapid turnover of leaders at the ailing company has seen shares fall by more than 90 percent in the past three years by some estimates, and its credit rating was downgraded in November last year to BB- by credit rating agency S&P Global Ratings.
This Cyber News was published on go.theregister.com. Publication date: Wed, 03 Jan 2024 16:13:06 +0000