The State will buy Atos supercomputers

Discussions between the State and Atos on the resumption of its strategic activities are progressing but over a more restricted scope than expected.

It is a long and complex negotiation which, if it is partly resolved this Monday, reflects the hesitations of the government.

Exclusive negotiations

The French State and Atos announced on November 25 that they had entered into exclusive negotiations, so that the first would acquire the strategic activities of the “Advanced Computing” branch of the second, a branch which brings together its supercomputer activities.

The planned operation, which also concerns servers participating in artificial intelligence activities, covers the entire branch, for a company value of between 500 and 625 million euros, specifies a press release. The French State's offer provides for discussions to take place until May 31, 2025 at the latest for “Advanced Computing”, which brings together some 2,500 employees and generated a turnover of 570 million euros in 2023. .

A first step in a long walk. It has actually been six months since the government negotiated the purchase of Atos' sovereign activities, from the Army's supercomputers, particularly for nuclear deterrence, to software for the Rafale defense system. Except that no one can agree within the government.

“The preferential action that the State has obtained is sufficient to protect these sensitive activities,” a source close to the executive tells us.

Two weeks ago, the State announced that it was granting itself a specific share in Bull, the Atos subsidiary which contains most of these sovereign businesses. It grants it a right of veto over major strategic decisions and therefore over their transfer. In addition, Bercy has the right to buy them back if an unsolicited investor bought 10% of Atos. But not everyone has the same opinion.

“The right of inspection is not enough because these activities are linked to national defense”, against a close friend of Bercy.

The Ministry of the Economy is procrastinating. In the midst of the parliamentary debate on the 2025 Budget, senior officials from the Budget and Treasury departments seem more concerned about not spending public money. “Discussions are continuing,” we soberly assured Antoine Armand’s office who, according to our information, was leaning more towards a buyout.

What are Dassault and Thales playing at?

However, the negotiations formalized this Monday now cover a much more restricted scope than two months ago. In this case, Advance Computing for supercomputers, which leaves in suspense the future of two other sensitive activities: Mission Critical System (MCS) for the Rafale defense systems, and Cyber ​​Product for cybersecurity.

At the beginning of October, the State and Atos ended their negotiations around the purchase of the Big Data and Security (BDS) division, a larger division in which all these critical activities plus others were housed. The government was ready to take them back for 700 million euros, backing them with Dassault Aviation and its partner Thales. An amount deemed insufficient by Atos who refused even though their margins fell this year.

According to the protagonists in the case, Dassault was notably pushing the price down. His presence still seems a question. “One day they are there, suddenly they are no longer there,” sums up, tiredly, an actor in the file.

“It's been several months since we've had trouble knowing what they want,” explains a good expert on the issue.

Its objective was to buy other peripheral activities to make the whole profitable. Contacted, Dassault did not respond to us. A month ago, Atos lost an important contract for a supercomputer for the Ministry of the Armed Forces to the Orange-HP duo. A failure which has not gone unnoticed and does not encourage the State to resume these sovereign activities, although in decline.