French state offers Atos €500m to acquire Advanced Computing activities

New offer is the second one in less than a year from the French government

The French government has made Atos a new non-binding offer to acquire 100 per cent of its Advanced Computing big data and cybersecurity activities.

The proposal is based on an enterprise value of €500m (£417.3m), less than the €570m revenue generated by the business in 2023.

This amount can potentially increase to €625m including earn-outs.

Atos declined to comment when approached by CRN.

This is the second offer in less than a year from the French government, as it previously sought to acquire Mission Critical System, Cybersecurity Products, and Advanced Computing for €700m in June 2024.

These two nationalisation attempts follow a letter of intent from the French state in April, in which it offered to acquire certain BDS assets to keep them under France's control if Atos were to collapse.

The reseller’s situation worries France as it’s found itself caught in a tumultuous saga, between the company's mild FY24 results and its frequent CEOs switches, with seven different people at the head of the company in the span of six years.

The eighth CEO, Philippe Salle, has already been announced and will take over in February 2025.

Atos’ Advanced Computing business regroups the high-performance computing (HPC) & quantum as well as the business computing & artificial intelligence divisions.

The offer received from the French state comes with an exclusive negotiation period until 31 May 2025.

An initial payment of €150m is expected to be made to Atos upon signing of the purchase agreement.

An independent expert appointed by the company will also be in charge of evaluating whether the terms of the transaction reflect a fair market value.

In the meantime, the government has not given up on acquiring Mission Critical Systems and Cybersecurity Products, as Atos would commit to launch a formal sale process for both businesses, which generated a revenue of around €340m in 2023.

Atos told CRN it will “not make any further official comments.”