Atos To Split, Plans Sale Of Its Tech Foundations Business
The sale of its Tech Foundations managed services business, which would include the Atos brand name, would if it closes as planned leave a stand-alone digital transformation company known as Eviden SE.
Global solution provider Atos has followed up on a plan to split its business into two with the planned sale of its Tech Foundations business to a private equity company.
Paris-based Atos Tuesday said it has entered into an agreement with Luxembourg-based private equity firm EP Equity Investment for EPEI to acquire 100 percent of Atos’ Tech Foundations business in a deal with an enterprise value of 2.0 billion Euros, or $2.2 billion.
That deal also includes the Atos brand name.
[Related: Atos May Split Into Two Companies: 5 Things To Know]
Once the deal is complete, Atos’ Eviden business will be known as Eviden SE.
Eviden should not be confused with Evidian, which is the identity and access management software suite of Eviden and which was the subject of a separate proposed strategic sale.
Atos in June of 2022 unveiled a plan to split the global solution provider giant into two separate companies.
This includes Tech Foundations, which is the Atos Group business line focused on managed services, hybrid cloud and infrastructure, employee experience, and technology services via decarbonized, automated, and AI-enabled solutions. Tech Foundations has about 52,000 employees and customers in 69 countries, and in 2022 had revenue of about 6.0 billion Euros, or about $6.6 billion.
The second part, Eviden, includes Atos’ digital, cloud, big data, and security business lines, and has a focus on data-driven and sustainable digital transformation. Eviden has about 57,000 employees working with clients in over 53 countries, with an annual revenue of about 5 billion Euros, or about $5.5 billion.
Atos’ board of directors has already given unanimous support for the deal. Shareholder approval of the deal will be sought for during an ad-hoc extraordinary general meeting expected to be held during the fourth quarter of 2023.
The closing of the deal is slated to happen in the fourth quarter of 2023 or the first quarter of 2024, Atos said.
This is not the first sale of assets either contemplated or completed by Atos, which last week reported first-half revenue of 5.55 billion Euros or $6.1 billion, essentially flat from the 5.56 billion Euros it reported for the same period last year. The company also reported a net loss of 600 million Euros or $659 million, which was higher than last year’s net loss of 503 million Euros.
Atos early last month entered exclusive negotiations with Schneider Electric for the sale of 100 percent of its EcoAct SAS business. EcoAct is an international consultant on climate solutions from planning and forecasting to carbon offsetting with 400 employees and revenue of about 70 million Euros or $77 million.
The company in early April also completed the sale of it Italian operations, known as Atos Italia, to Lutech, an Italy-based IT services and solutions provider.
Atos in January entered into exclusive negotiations with Mitel Networks for the sale of its Unified Communications & Collaboration Services businesses, also known as Unify. That deal is set to close in the second half of 2023.
One proposed strategic asset sale, that of Eviden’s Evidian security software business, fell through. Airbus, which in addition to its well known aerospace business is also a global provider of cybersecurity solutions, early this year explored taking a minority 29.9-percent stake in Evidian.
However, Atos in March said that Airbus was no longer pursuing that deal, and that the two would explore cybersecurity partnerships.