Atos and Siemens pump additional €100 million into joint R&D programme
Atos and Siemens are each making a further €100 million available for their joint digital innovation agenda. The two companies have been working closely together since mid-2011. With the new commitment of the French and German giants, their total joint budget for innovation and R&D will reach €330 million by 2020.
Following the acquisition of Siemens IT Solutions by Atos, the two parties signed a strategic partnership. French-origin Atos paid about €850 million at the end of 2010 for the IT arm of Siemens, in return for which the Germans received an approximate 15% stake in Atos’ shares (which at the time equated to around 12.5 million shares).
Since then, the two corporates have collaborated on projects (Atos helped Siemens with the global rollout of SAP HANA), new services (the two launched a joint cybersecurity service for industrial companies) and research & innovation.
The results of the collaboration have so far “exceeded all expectations” said Thierry Breton, CEO and CEO of Atos. “The strategic alliance between Atos and Siemens is unique in our industry. Through our digital collaboration, we are combining our industry and technology knowledge to support together the end-to-end the digital transformation of our customers.” Roland Busch, CTO and member of the Managing Board of Siemens and member of the Board of Directors of Atos, added: “The strategic alliance continues to deliver strong business results while addressing important digital and innovative technologies.”
According to the two executives, since the start of the partnership in 2011, the two parties have achieved a joint order intake of €2.5 billion.
Building on the results, Atos and Siemens are now expanding their investments in innovation. Together, they are committing an additional €100 million to Research & Development. The joint innovation and investment programme focuses on the development of common capacities in the field of data analysis, artificial intelligence, advanced IoT and connectivity services, cyber security and digital technologies. With the move, the two partners want to stay ahead of their competition in the rapidly transforming IT landscape.
“We continue to combine the strength of both companies and expand our investment programme to give substance to our common vision on themes such as cyber security and artificial intelligence. It is also crucial for us that Atos is an important partner in our ecosystem for MindSphere [the cloud IoT platform of Siemens], which underlines our common ambitions,” concluded Busch.
