HAS a few weeks before the start of the events for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the financial marathon of Atos, one of the technological pillars of the event, continues. The troubled IT manager has given himself until May 31 to present a rescue solution to his creditors. Whatever the takeover offer selected among the three now in the running, the group, which dreamed of itself as the flagship of the sector, has above all become the emblem of collective bankruptcy.
Read the survey | Article reserved for our subscribers Atos, the hubris and fall of a French IT musketeer
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The fiasco is obvious: while the value of Atos has been divided by ten in less than two years, the IT giant must urgently find more than 1 billion euros in liquidity and restructure a debt which is around 5 billion . For years, few people cared about the future of the company. The fact that the activity was barely visible to the general public made it possible to maintain relative indifference regarding the mistakes of management, until the scandal broke out. By letting the situation get worse, managers and administrators have led to a crisis for which some of the 100,000 employees around the world will now pay the price.
The former CEO of Atos Thierry Breton, who arrived in 2008, can hardly exonerate himself from his responsibilities in this debacle. By wanting to force the growth of the small IT service provider, the current European Commissioner for the Internal Market has ultimately contributed to weakening the company. Focused on its spectacular acquisitions (purchase of the IT services division of the German industrialist Siemens, then of the American Xerox), the group notably missed the strategic shift towards dematerialized computing (“cloud computing”).
Floating Print
Chronic instability at the head of the group after the departure of Mr. Breton in 2019 and a failing board of directors have worsened this situation. “I left the company in perfect health, without debt”, Mr. Breton defends himself today. But, in this industry, if mistakes are paid for in cash, the bill is not presented until many years later. How else can we explain that Atos is in agony when most of the giants of the sector have emerged strengthened from the pandemic crisis which boosted their market?
Added to these strategic errors was the lack of vigilance on the part of the government, which remained passive for a long time in the face of the situation. While major clients turned away and senior executives jumped ship, the public authorities seem to have discovered late that Atos was not just a common IT service provider. The profile of certain activities of the group, present in cybersecurity, the management of nuclear power plants, the system for securing the communication networks of Rafale fighters and supercomputers, should have led the government not to wait until the last moment to try to protect these sensitive areas.
Read also, in 2023 | Article reserved for our subscribers Atos: story of a crash, from the Breton years to dismantling
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It took the situation to worsen, for hedge funds and foreign buyers to take an interest in the matter for the Minister of the Economy to finally intervene, only a few days ago. This late awakening on Atos leaves an impression of uncertainty on questions of sovereignty, at a time when, in view of the geopolitical situation, vigilance should be at all times.
