"It's an important day for the history of our company, our shareholders and our employees," said Friday Thierry Breton, the CEO of Atos Origin IT services. At 99.99%, the shareholders approved the purchase of SIS, Siemens IT Solutions and Services, the division of German giant in the computer.
The new group has annual sales of 8.7 billion euros and represents a global workforce of 78,500 employees, of whom 28,000 are from the German giant. However, in 1750 job cuts were decided, including 650 on a voluntary basis in Germany, "which are financed and provisioned to the tune of 250 million euros by Siemens," says the CEO. The job cuts outside of Germany will be decided in the headquarters of the subsidiaries in which the two companies are present, including the United States.But the subsidiary in Austria provided by Siemens will be retained as well as activities in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, including Romania and Russia, where Atos is absent or not present. In addition, Siemens provides its team of Chengdu, China.
"Reference majeure"
Activities provided by Siemens should generate an operating profit of 50 million euros in the second half.
Friday, the German group has signed a contract outsourcing its IT to Atos amounting to 5.5 billion euros over seven years. With this new dimension, the French group wins a critical size, the top ten IT service companies in the world, "allowing us to be successful in all tenders, which was not previously the case "added the CEO free instant credit score."We have a major reference, Siemens, which is the first industrial group in the world," adds Charles Dehelly, director of operations of Atos. The German group brings its contracts with the U.S. Coca-Cola, Nike, Cesar Palace, in Germany with Deutsche Bank, Allianz, Hoechst, Bayer and brands of cars. Finally, both groups decided to create a joint research center, with 100 million, funded equally by Siemens and Atos. They will share revenue from patents.
In return for its contributions, Siemens will receive 840 million euros. This amount is provided by a capital increase of 15% stake in Atos. Siemens will retain for at least five years its shares, which will increase the number of shares Atos 70 to 82 million.Siemens gets over 250 million euros as convertible bonds and 176 million in cash.
As the two groups prepare the marriage for more than a year, employees of the new group will begin work in their new positions on Monday. "I've never been a consolidation so fast," says Thierry Breton.
To mark the marriage, Atos Origin has decided to change its name and simply called Atos. "There are both A Atos Origin, Siemens and S" to "that marks the bridge between the two groups," said Marc Meyer, the director of communications.