Atos’s planned separation in two public entities – What does it really mean for all stakeholders?

By Vincent Fraser

Please note that this article reflects Vincent Fraser’s personal point of view and it doesn’t represent a message on behalf of Atos.

On June 14, 2022, Rodolphe Belmer, CEO at Atos, following a strategic study, announced a big transformation project splitting the company in two entities. This announcement created noise in the market leading to many rumors in the press and financial market and bringing insecurities to employees, clients, suppliers and partners.

As the CEO of Processia, an Atos company, I had the opportunity to participate in the “after-announcement” Atos Group Executive meetings last week to better understand this new plan and interact with the leadership team asking my questions and sharing my thoughts.

In this blog, let me demystify what you might have heard and explain concretely what it means through these 5 key questions and answers.

Question 1: Atos’s performance wasn’t great lately, so how this split will help the business?

Rodolphe Belmer, his executive team, and Atos’s Board of Directors did an extensive analysis to understand why the company is under performing. They concluded that Atos was playing in two distinct markets with fundamentally different dynamics (the Infrastructure driven market, and the Application driven market) and that as such different entities are required to reach our full potential.

The vision now is to shape Atos into two separate entities specifically designed to thrive in their respective market environments with clear value proposition and positioning:

Tech Foundations Co / Atos, led by Nourdine Bihmane, would consolidate our recognized global market-leading positions in Data Centre & Hosting, Digital Workplace, Hybrid, and Private Cloud, Professional Services, as well as Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), with the mission of designing, building and managing complex and vital information systems to maintain business continuity worldwide.
SpinCo / Evidian, led by Philippe Oliva, would bring together our world-leading capabilities in Digital, which include Applications, AI, Data and Platforms, Cloud and Decarbonization, and Digital Business Operations; as well as our high-growth, R&D-intensive offerings in Cybersecurity, High performance & Edge computing and Mission Critical Systems.

According to me, this new business structure, clarity and relevant focus, and expertise dedicated to clients’ needs are exactly the right thing to do and will drive better success for our clients and employees.

Question 2: Why the financial market reacted strongly with share price drop?

Financial analysts overseeing public companies are very short term driven and are focusing on short-term perspectives, results and profits. Atos senior management recognize that they cannot extract the full potential value of the company by keeping it whole. They determined that Atos is comprised of 2 very different businesses, one that is at maturity and declining and the other one that is in a startup mode with high growth potential and high return. Atos believes that the sum of these two companies will exceed the actual value attributed by the public market. This transformation will take time and investment and it won’t happen overnight.

For the long-term investor of Atos’s and financial success, it is the right decision but for the short-term immediate impact to shareholder’s pocket, this doesn’t resonate the same. In addition to that, the press and financial market started to spread bad rumors such as Rodolphe is leaving the company as bad news, alluding to a potential takeover by vulture funds or other interested parties. A lot of gossip which led, in my opinion to a drastic drop in our share price. Once the rationale behind this transformation plan is better understood and digested by the market, and through the increased focus and better positioning of the two entities, shareholder value will improve considerably in a realistic manner.

Question 3: What is the impact for Processia’s clients and future clients?

Since Processia’s team and expertise are already identified in the new SpinCo entity (Evidian) as a key player in Digital Transformation, no moves of employees will be made, operations will remain the same and no business disruption will happen.

Processia’s employees will stay 100% focused on client’s project plus the business transformation / carve out will be executed by a dedicated project team inside Atos.

Question 4: Is it good news for Processia’s employees?

Focus, clear objectives, dedicated leadership, and substantial investment into relevant processes and tools are success factors for employees to be happy and perform within an organization. This is truly what I believe in and I’m happy that this is exactly what we will offer now to our team.

Concretely, Processia’s team will keep growing with an aggressive hiring plan. Processia will play a critical role in building the Evidian industry 360 practice with plans to grow 1,000+ experts to address the industrial value chain.

Question 5: Why should talent join our team now?

Following this announcement and the clarity of the vision and objectives of Evidan, we understand that our team will be better equipped and dedicated to the Digital Transformation of our clients. At Processia, we have a proven PLM expertise with a two-decade long specialization into Dassault Systèmes solution. With our Atos colleagues, experts in PLM with Siemens solutions and MES, we wanted to join our forces and create a leading team of 1,000+ experts across the world through a consolidated practice called Industry 360° designed to offer end-to-end Digital Transformation services for Industrial Value Chains. Our growth objective is ambitious, which means for you a unique career opportunity to join a brand-new team of experts who wanted to create a bigger impact in our clients’ future.

You wanted to learn more about our new practice Industry 360°? Don’t miss our next blog dedicated to it!

You have other questions or comments? We are here to talk!

You can reach one of our Processia’s leaders nearest to you: