(Reuters) -Aatos accepted a firm offer on Monday awarded by the French State for the acquisition of part of its former activity called “Advanced Computing” for a business value of 410 million euros.

This strategic division manufactures supercalculators, which notably have military applications and in nuclear, hence their sensitive nature for the State.

“I am delighted with the acceptance by Atos of this firm offer, which is an important advance for securing the strategic activity of the supercalculators,” said Eric Lombard Minister Eric Lombard quoted in a press release from Bercy on Monday.

The offer of the French State relates to a more limited perimeter of the ATOS activities offered at the end of 2024 because it excludes AI vision activities, which designs in particular video analysis software by artificial intelligence, “a little further from the immediate challenges of the State”, it is explained to the Ministry of Economy.

This firm offer follows exclusive negotiations launched last November with the objective of “offering the most reassuring framework for development and growth”, it adds to Bercy.

At the start of the negotiations and the announcement of a previous non-pregnant state offer in late November 2024, Atos had announced a range between 500 million and 625 million euros for the value of the activities negotiated with the State.

According to the group, the difference with the current value of 410 million euros “reflects the reduced perimeter of the transaction”.

Vision AI activities will be repositioned within the Eviden branch to constitute a new division, said Atos.

Long process

Representatives of Bercy said on Monday considering an “finalization of the operation between the end of the first quarter and the end of the first half of 2026.

They explained the length of this period by the “relative complexity of the process of separating these activities” from the rest of Atos.

Asked about the possibility of a partnership with an industrial group to manage these activities, Bercy said they did not have “ongoing discussions” on this subject at this stage, but not having “reason to exclude in absolute terms, it could intervene in a second time”.

The State’s firm offer includes an additional conditional price of 110 million euros based on profitability indicators for the financial year 2025 and 2026, said Atos.

According to Bercy, the activities of “Advanced Computing” employ around 2,500 employees and should generate a turnover of about 800 million euros in 2025.

Atos indicates for its part that its financial trajectory for 2028, presented last month, remains unchanged despite the planned transfer.

On the Paris Stock Exchange, the ATOS action fell 2.3% to 37.69 euros around 8:30 am GMT, after an opening in the green.

(Written by Florence Lève and Elena Smirnova, edited by Augustin Turpin and Blandine Hénault)

Copyright © 2025 Thomson Reuters