Atos buys French IT services firm Bull for 620 million

Atos has bought IT-services firm Bull for a fee of approximately €620 million. As a result of the deal Atos strengthens its position in the European IT consulting landscape, in particular in the field of Cloud, Big Data, and Cybersecurity.

Bull has over the past decades built a strong track record in the IT-market. The firm has 9.200 employees and a revenue just under €1,3 billion, of which half is earned in the French home-market. Bull works for large multinationals such as Carrefour, Électricité de France and Total and public institutions. Although its service portfolio spans the full IT-landscape, it specializes in Big Data and Cybersecurity matters.

For Atos the main reason behind the acquisition is scale in these two expertise areas. Big Data is one of the fast growing segments within the IT-market with a growth rate of roughly +40% per year and is expected to reach €12 billion through 2015.

With the addition of Bull to its organization Atos expects to have a dedicated Big Data & Cybersecurity unit with revenue of more than €500 million, according to the firm making it a global market leader in this field. “Bull’s highly recognized teams in advanced technologies such as high computing power, data analytics management, and cybersecurity ideally complement Atos’ large scale operations. This transaction will strongly benefit Bull and Atos clients, employees, and shareholders” says Thierry Breton, CEO of Atos.

Synergy

In addition, Atos expects to gain synergies from the bundling of services and back-office activities. After completion of the integration plan (24 months) the firms expect €80 million of annual cost synergies, of which the largest share (€50 million) will be the result of efficiency in procurement and real estate.

Atos currently has 76.300 employees across the globe and a revenue of €8,6 billion.