This is one more step in saving Atos. This weekend, the French government came forward, via a letter of intent, to buy back its sovereign activities, while the French tech company is in great difficulty. The operation “would protect the strategic imperatives of state sovereignty”, underlined the group in a press release, which also welcomed this proposal. The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, declared on Sunday April 28 on LCI that he had sent a letter of intent to the company in order to prevent strategic activities for France from “passing into the hands of actors foreigners. And for good reason: of the 9,700 Atos employees in France, nearly 900 have defense secret clearance. What are these “sovereign activities”? L’Express takes stock.
Supercomputers and AI servers
What interests the French State the most is Eviden, a subsidiary of the Atos group, specializing in digital technology, the cloud, big data and cybersecurity. The software offered by Eviden is, for example, used for domestic intelligence, part of the Rafale’s connectivity, or even the simulation of nuclear tests as well as the secure telephone of the armed forces. More specifically, among its activities there are supercomputers. As their name suggests, these are supercomputers capable of carrying out complex calculations very quickly. They are used in particular to simulate our nuclear tests. The Eviden subsidiary also has the Worldgrid and BDS (Big Data and security) divisions. Specializing in energy management systems, Worldgrid designs in particular the so-called control-command systems which supervise our nuclear power plants.
While the BDS division, which Airbus almost acquired a few months ago, houses several other professions deemed even more sensitive. Its Mission critical systems (MCS) entity deploys various highly secure communication systems used by Rafale pilots, infantrymen or naval forces during combat, details the magazine Capital. It also designs telephone tapping systems for use by the General Directorate of External Security (DGSE).
A value of 900 million euros
This scope generates an annual turnover of around 900 million euros, out of a total of nearly 11 billion euros for the entire Atos group, and brings together 4,000 employees, mainly based in France, a source in Bercy told Agence France Presse. These activities generated a turnover of around 1 billion euros in 2023, or a little less than 10% of the revenues of the entire group, said the French flagship, while a non-binding offer of the State is expected by June and that the “due diligence” phase (consultation of the accounts, Editor’s note) must start “soon”. Ultimately, the supposedly strategic or sovereign professions would therefore not represent more than 7% of the group’s revenues. But the State has already made it known that it does not wish to engage alone in this project to buy out sovereign activities. He is keen to see other French companies support this former flagship in turmoil.
So far, the State had already committed to lending 50 million euros to the company to help it stabilize its financial situation. He then acquired a “preferred share” which allows him to veto certain operations.