Onepoint President David Layani announces his resignation from the board of directors.
Onepoint, Atos’ largest shareholder, is to withdraw from the troubled IT giant after backing out of a bid to buy it after its offer was accepted, Atos said in a statement Friday. Onepoint’s representatives, chairman David Layani and Helen Lee Bouygues, are resigning. “with immediate effect of the board of directors” Atos, the group added in this brief press release.
Both joined the board of directors of Atos at the end of February, of which Onepoint is the largest shareholder with more than 11% of the capital. These announcements come two days after yet another twist in the Atos case, once the flagship of French IT but which is today fighting for its survival in a long descent into hell.
Chosen on June 11 to take over Atos and try to save it, the consortium led by Onepoint threw in the towel on Wednesday, to everyone’s surprise. This leaves the way open for Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky to resume discussions, although he had initially been turned down. Mired in a financial crisis for nearly three years, Atos, which is now worth barely more than one euro on the stock market, had initiated a restructuring procedure in February.
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It had announced that it would need €1.1 billion in cash for its business in 2024-2025 and wanted to massively reduce its gross debt, by €4.8 billion, to safeguard its business. Atos will be a technological pillar of the Paris Olympics this summer, and its future also has a strong political dimension linked to its strategic activities in the field of defense (army equipment or supercomputers used for French nuclear deterrence).
